Chasing The Wind
by Kutenku
Summary: the grand finale to the RGTW SERIES. Chapter Nine now with TEXT!
1. Chapter 1

J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

CHASING THE WIND

Part One: The Thing in the Yard.

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man,

Fission Park 1/2 is the creation and

Property of Rumiko Takahashi and

Shogakukan/KITTY TV/VIZ.

This series is dedicated to Jim 'Dizzy' Goleski. He is the one who

introduced me to fanfiction, and it is only fitting that he has hooked me,

as I introduced him to Ranma and Company several years ago. It is also

dedicated to my beloved wife, Bridget, for it is through this story that

we met.

Chapter One

The winter of the war was over, giving way to spring. Nerima in the

springtime was a wonderful place. The cherry blossoms filled the air with

a sweet fragrance, and the sunlight brought a cheerful glow to all it

fell upon. The merry month of May seemed without a care in the world.

Kasumi Tendo stepped outside to answer a knock at the gate. She wondered

if it was a new student for the dojo, for most of the regulars knew enough to

let themselves in. Ever since Ranma had started on the morning classes full

time, the dojo had been busy.

She smiled for a few birds who sang in cheery greeting to her. A few

chipmunks chattered for her and she waved to them too. Kasumi just had this

effect on animals.

She opened the gate to see a policeman standing astride his tiny

motorbike. She recognized him by his acne scarred face as Officer Yanagimachi,

from the nearby koban. A white minivan sat along the road. Two westerners sat

inside waiting. When the policeman bowed for Kasumi the one on the passenger

side got out of the minivan.

"Good morning, Miss Tendo," Yanagimachi offered with a smile. "Is your

father home?"

"Oh, why yes," Kasumi replied, sunshine pumps running in fast speed. Then

she thought about the nature of the policeman's request. "Oh my, is something

the matter?"

Yanagimachi laughed. He was well used to the antics that went on at the

Tendo Dojo. "Not at all, Miss Tendo. I'm simply here to assist these gentlemen

in a science experiment."

He gestured to the man who now stood behind him. The man nodded briefly.

To Kasumi, the man seemed a little uncomfortable about the situation.

"Science experiment?" she asked. "How fascinating."

Mister Tendo had by now come outside. He was holding a newspaper tucked

under his arm. A lit cigarette dangled from his lip.

"What seems to be the trouble?" he asked.

"No trouble at all, Mister Tendo," Officer Yanagimachi assured. "As I

was explaining to your daughter, these gentlemen wish to perform a science

experiment. They would like to study the magnetic fields generated by power

lines in the neighborhood."

Soun frowned.

"I thought only the big high voltage transmission lines put out magnetic

fields. As you can see, there are none around here."

The westerner took the policeman's broken English translation and shook

his head. He said a few sentences in English, which Yanagimachi translated

for Soun and Kasumi.

"Mister Ferguson says his research group is performing a survey of low

intensity fields. They wish to place a small sensor in your back yard to

collect data. Every morning he would come by to take the data and put in a

blank tape. The survey is only going to last a week."

Mister Tendo looked to Kasumi, who shrugged.

Ferguson said something to the policeman, who supplied:

"The sensor is completely passive. It will emit nothing, merely detect

and record data. Mister Ferguson also says his group is prepared to pay

you a modest sum of money for your troubles."

"Oh, it's no trouble!" Kasumi cried, a little embarrassed at the

possibility she wasn't being a gracious hostess.

"How much?" Soun quickly added.

Ferguson made an offer.

"Mister Ferguson says he can only pay you one thousand yen per day,

as he has many other sensors to place today." Yanagimachi said this with

a dread that spoke of a very long day ahead.

"Sold," Tendo declared. The sudden windfall of the dojo had done

nothing to dampen old habits of making a yen where you could. His daughter

Nabiki would have haggled, but it seemed a reasonable fee for so little

trouble.

"Domo arigato!" Ferguson cried, probably the most Japanese he

understood. His voice carried a European flavor to it, but to Soun's ears

westerners all sounded the same.

He ran back to the minivan and opened the side door. He retrieved

a large white box mounted on a collapsing tripod. With the device in his

arms, he said something to the policeman.

Officer Yanagimachi turned back to Soun and Kasumi. "I apologize for

Mister Ferguson's zeal, but he would like to know how he can find his way

to your garden."

"Right this way, please," Kasumi offered. She led the man and his device

into the front door. Ferguson had been to enough homes in Nerima to know that

the shoes came off immediately, and donned a pair of slippers provided for

guests. Fortunately he was wearing a clean pair of socks today, as the demands

of his work often precluded such matters of personal hygiene.

She led him through the house to the garden. Nabiki had finished her

finals early this year, and watched the man and his device walk by. She had

seen strange things in the house before, but they usually weren't in this

class of strange.

"Hey, sis?" Nabiki called.

"What is it, Nabiki?" Kasumi replied.

"Just who is that strange man, and what's that he's carrying?"

"Oh, why this is Mister Ferguson." Kasumi gestured to where the man

had been standing, only to find that he had gone outside. He was now

extending the legs of the tripod.

Nabiki pointed outside.

"So what's with that big white box?"

"He's conducting some kind of experiment involving the power lines,"

Kasumi answered.

"Oh..." she remarked. She thought a moment about this. "What?"

Kasumi smiled. "There's nothing to be worried about, Nabiki."

"Who's worried?" Nabiki returned. "I was just a little curious. It's

not every day someone wants to conduct experiments in your backyard. Even

in this neighborhood."

Ferguson closed a small access panel on the side of the box, gave it

an affectionate pat, and walked back inside. He smiled for the ladies,

remembering to bow his head, and repeated his 'thank you.'

Yanagimachi and Mister Tendo had stepped inside from the front door.

Ferguson repeated his thank you again for Soun.

"Won't you stay for some lemonade?" Kasumi asked. "I just made some."

Officer Yanagimachi turned red in embarrassment as Ferguson left the

house through the front door and continued on to the gate.

"I apologize for his rudeness, Miss Tendo. Unfortunately we have a

very busy day ahead of us. Thank you for your patience and please forgive

the intrusion."

"Of course, Officer Yanagimachi," Kasumi replied. She was truly

indefatigable today.

"Is that the last of them?"

Ferguson nodded to the woman who asked. "Right-o. It took long enough.

I don't know how many people that copper had to cajole to let me in."

An older man seated across from them in the hotel room leaned closer.

"How much data do you estimate we will require?"

Ferguson shrugged in response. "That depends on the magnitude of the

event. In any case, I think a week will be more than sufficient time to

compile a profile on ambient magnetic flux. Nerima is a residential area;

power consumption and therefore magnetic flux should remain fairly constant

over given time periods."

"Then you're sure you can filter out the background noise?"

Ferguson chuckled. "This is the first time we've had to do this in

a city, but it shouldn't be a problem. I'd calculate out all the vectors

myself if we weren't in such a hurry. I guarantee greater accuracy over

that damn electronic abacus of yours."

"That's a Cray IIp, Ferg," the woman admonished.

"Then it's a damn bloody expensive abacus."

"That's all well and fine, Mister Ferguson. We are, as you say, in a

hurry."

Ferguson dipped an infusion basket of Earl Grey tea into a mug of

steaming water. "There won't be any problems, Professor McFogg. Casimir is

stuck pursuing that dead end solution in Turkey, and we haven't seen any

signs of the others. I think we should pull the rest of the team in. The

event will happen in Nerima."

McFogg thought about this. Casimir and his Russian team were probably

their closest competition, though some of the others, renegades from his

own research group with their own ideas and backing from a rich Texan,

presented a more serious threat. They knew his operation from the inside.

"You're quite sure, Mister Ferguson?"

"Absolutely. I only wish the predicted location for the next event

wasn't in a residential area like Tokyo. Placing all these bloody sensors

just so we can filter out magnetic noise has been a real pain in the arse."

"Don't forget gravitic effects," the woman observed. "If anything,

I've noticed anomalies in the local gravitational field of this neighborhood."

"Any explanations for this?" McFogg asked.

"No Professor. That's simply the way things are here."

"What did I doooooooooooo...?!" Happosai cried as he hurtled

skyward.

Ranma tracked the ancient lecher across the sky, shading his eyes

from the setting sun with his hand.

"Nice hang time, Ucchan!"

Ukyo stood next to him, frozen in her stance. Her uppercut strike

with her gigantic spatula cut a breathtaking pose. Her face blazed red.

"T-th-that old pervert..." she managed with an icy voice.

Ranma sat down next to Nabiki on the back porch to watch the

sunset. Ukyo composed herself and joined them.

"You should come to expect stunts like that from him, you know,"

Nabiki declared.

Ukyo sighed. "I know. I know. But it still doesn't make getting

felt up by that old pervert any easier to bear." She turned to Ranma to

see if he was going to add something. He was by far Happosai's favorite.

Ranma was instead staring at the curious white box mounted on a

tripod that sat in the middle of the backyard.

"What's that supposed to be?" Ukyo asked.

"Beats me," Ranma replied. "Kasumi said something about a science

experiment. Something to do with power lines."

"I read somewhere that high tension lines might cause cancer," Ukyo

managed. This was a little out of her area of expertise, and it was the

best she could add to the discussion.

"You don't suppose they're trying to prove that all power lines are

harmful, do you?" Nabiki asked all of a sudden. She had recently invested

heavily in utilities stocks, and the last thing she needed to hear was that

her portfolio was about to nose-dive.

"Maybe," Ranma said quietly. "When I was in Korea I watched guys

cook hot dogs with the radar directors of their SAM batteries. About two

seconds was all it took to make them pop."

"Yeeeesh..." Ukyo and Nabiki shuddered appreciatively.

"I'll say," Ranma added.

They watched the sun set in all its purple and red glory. The sunset

skies were a little more sanguine these days thanks to all the dust and

debris thrown into the stratosphere from a certain nuclear weapon

detonation just before last Christmas. Every sunset was in fact a reminder

of days Ranma would sooner forget, and he became even more

withdrawn into himself.

Nabiki took this as her cue to leave. She kissed Ranma on the cheek,

which brought a momentary smile of appreciation to his grave countenance.

She went inside to watch the late evening news.

Ukyo nodded approvingly to Nabiki as she left. Then she sidled up

closer to Ranma.

"I'm sorry Ranchan. I shouldn't have reminded you."

Ranma turned to her and shrugged. "It's not your fault Ukyo... I'll put

this behind me, it's just gonna take a little time."

"I'm still sorry."

"Don't be," he replied. He then pushed up the corners of his mouth into

a smile with his fingers. "See? I'm happy again."

Ukyo laughed for his benefit, then slugged him playfully in the arm.

"Wanna take a walk for awhile?" She asked.

Ranma hopped to his feet. "Okay."

Ukyo popped up next to him. "Let's go then!"

She ran for the back wall and leaped gracefully over it. Ranma was hot

on her heels. Their 'walk' was really a run as they leaped from wall to wall,

tree to tree, and roof to roof.

Ukyo stopped in the middle of the vacant lot. It had been vacant ever

since World War Two, when the house that once stood there had been hit

by an errant 250 lb. bomb from an American B-17. No one had ever rebuilt

the house on the lot, and by the time of Ranma and Company, property

values were so inflated that no one of the modest means that lived in

Nerima could afford to buy it. Thus it would probably remain vacant for

a long time to come.

There was always something strange about the lot. Nothing frightening

mind you, just something intangible yet attractive about the place. If you

wandered for awhile in Nerima, eventually you would find yourself

stopping in that vacant lot.

"Feel better now?" Ukyo panted.

Ranma tucked his hands behind his head. "Much better, thanks." He

wasn't even winded.

Ukyo noticed this immediately.

"I've gotta start working out more. Another run around the

neighborhood would have killed me." She lamented.

Ranma laughed for a moment. Then his face became a little more

serious of character. "I'm glad you closed up shop early today. I kinda

needed to talk to someone."

"Fire away, honey." Ukyo panted. "I'll answer you in a minute.

Besides, if it wasn't for you drawing all this business into Nerima to

attend the dojo's training lessons, I wouldn't have been able to afford to

close up so early."

"Times that tough?"

"Not at all. But if I want to go to school this fall I need to save every

yen I can."

"I hear ya," Ranma replied. "Mister Tendo's been great about paying

me as much as he can for teaching in the dojo, and my mother's been

saving money for years so I could go to school, but even then it'll be tight."

Ukyo sat down in the grass and patted the spot next to her. Ranma

sat down in the offered spot.

"Do you really want to go to school?" She asked.

Ranma was silent for moment. He wasn't really sure himself, and said

as much to her.

"Then you're doing it for Akane's sake," Ukyo said evenly.

There was no hint of accusation or betrayal in her voice. Ukyo had

known for some time to whom Ranma's heart belonged. If she could not

be his lover, then she vowed to be the best friend she could be. It was

often painful for her and awkward for him, but they had worked things

out over the last five months. Being a friend meant sometimes asking

painful or awkward questions.

Ranma sighed. "Yeah, I guess I am..."

"That's okay honey." She took his hand. "I just don't want you to

think of this as some duty you have to perform. I want you to get

something valuable, something useful out of your time in school. I only

want you to be happy."

"I'll be fine, Ucchan." He said.

She grinned at him. "I know you will. So don't be so glum all the

time!"

"I've been pretty good since the beginning of spring!" Ranma protested.

He'd had a very happy Christmas and New Year upon his discharge from

the JGSDF, but when Akane went back to school for the next semester his

spirits plummeted.

It was more than just Akane leaving. A lot of people in his life were

gone. Hiro disappeared to Gods knew where, Ryoga had gotten himself so

thoroughly lost he hadn't been heard from since, even his parents had

returned home while he stayed with the Tendos. He visited his mother

often and his old man always played shogi with Mr. Tendo on Saturdays,

but it just wasn't the same.

His whole life had changed since the war. People that were always

around suddenly weren't anymore. Kuno, he had learned, had been

released from Yokosuka nearly fully recovered. He had not visited the

dojo once since his discharge. He hadn't seen much of Shampoo, and he

wasn't sure if it meant that she had at last given up on him. Of course

without Shampoo around, Mousse was no where to be found either.

Kodachi had nearly dropped out of school to tend to her brother in a show

of sibling affection he hadn't thought possible from her. He hadn't seen

Hikaru Gosunkugi since that autumn day when he held a pressure dressing

against a gaping bullet hole through the man's shoulder while Ryoga

rushed him to the battalion aid station. (Until that day he didn't think it

was possible for a man to have so much blood spilled and live.)

If anything, the Tendos and particularly Ukyo had been the only

source of familiarity left to him. Akane took a train home when she could,

but after her mediocre performance last semester, she was resolved to

make something of her current one. That meant her visits were few and

far between. He found himself missing her daily, and it was the worse for

knowing she was so close to home.

"Yes you have," Ukyo observed. "I'm proud of you for it."

Ranma grinned a little. "Ya know, as usual you have cut right to heart

of the matter I wanted to talk to you about.'

"About going to school for Akane's sake?"

"Yeah."

"Oh Ranchan, I saw this coming a long time ago."

Ranma regarded her quizzically. "Oh yeah?"

Ukyo gave his hand a squeeze. "Yeah, it's about growing up. Peter

Pan and all that."

"Who? What do you mean by that?"

Ukyo didn't bother explaining who Peter Pan was. "Look at us. We're

all nineteen years old now. We're through with high school and now it's

time to be on our own. Our parents aren't making choices for us anymore."

"Some parents aren't making choices for us," Ranma corrected.

"Ranma-honey, you've never let your father push you into anything

you didn't really want since the time we met again in high school. Mr.

Saotome certainly isn't forcing your hand now. Like it or not you're on

your own."

"Well... I suppose your kinda right," Ranma admitted.

"And it's scary, isn't it?"

He paused in thought for a moment. "A little I guess."

"Don't like to admit when you're frightened? I don't either."

He looked into her lovely green eyes. "So what do you suggest?"

Ukyo turned away for a moment. It was too painful to bear when all

she wanted to do was hold him close and knowing that he wasn't hers

to love. He didn't mean to, but this was one of those moments when he

hurt her with a look.

Ranma realized what he was doing to her and whispered, "I'm sorry

Ucchan."

She looked up at him, eyes moist with tears and then threw her arms

around him. He was surprised at first, but when she began sobbing quietly

he held onto her tightly. He had no idea what to do or say to ease the

hurt. He loved her, but it was not the kind of love she wanted most from

him.

How do you make up for something like that? he thought sadly.

"I'm trying to figure out which one of us is more like Peter Pan..."

Ukyo said in halting sob wracked breaths. "Who's more afraid of growing

up?"

Chapter Two

Ferguson stopped for lemonade on the third of his daily visits to

Tendo Dojo. He immediately regretted not stopping sooner when

Kasumi also brought out a tray of freshly baked cookies. He ate a few

with Kasumi, Mr. Tendo, and Nabiki as they watched him withdraw the

data tape from the sensor.

" Just what are you going to do with this data you're collecting? "

Nabiki asked. Her English was flawless.

Ferguson adjusted a few contacts within the box. " We're compiling a

time-indexed magnetic 'map' of Nerima. "

Nabiki nodded sagely. " Who is 'we'? "

Ferguson snorted a laugh. Nabiki walked over to him and peeked into

the box. Inside were several printed circuit cards, a large box that looked

like some sort of battery, a tape drive, another smaller white box that

issued a shrill so soft and high pitched it was barely audible, and a large

coil of copper wire wrapped around the inside of the housing.

" You know lass, you've shown more curiosity than the rest of the

neighborhood combined. I like that. "

" So who is this 'we' you're part of? " She pressed

" We're an independent research group, but our major funding comes

from the National Geographic Society, from US Government grants through the

NOAA, and through the British Academy of Science. "

" That explains the English accent, " Nabiki observed.

" A mere coincidence, Love, " Ferguson retorted.

" Which brings me to my next question: why in the world did you

come to Nerima Japan to compile this 'magnetic map'? I could understand

if a Japanese concern was funding this experiment, but that doesn't

appear to be the case. "

Ferguson snorted again. " Would you believe me if I told you that

there was a Japanese concern? "

Nabiki pounced. " It's a little late for that don't you think? If

there was a Japanese concern funding this, then that would have been the

first thing you would have told me. "

Ferguson closed the access cover to the box and locked it. He drank

another sip of lemonade and gave Nabiki the once over. " It's a secret. "

Nabiki narrowed her eyes at him. " What kind of secret? "

Ferguson shook his head. " A special one. So special I don't think

you'd believe me if I told you. "

" Try me. "

He slung a black nylon bag over his shoulder. " I don't think you'd

understand either. I've got degrees in physics and mathematics, and I

still don't know the half of what's going on. "

He bowed for Mister Tendo and started for the door.

" Hey waitaminute! " Nabiki cried. " Tell me what's going on! "

Ferguson called over his shoulder. " Thank your sister for the

cookies and the lemonade. They were fantastic! "

Nabiki caught up with him. " Where are you going now? "

" I've got another ten sensors to visit today, and I still have some

surveys to take. Don't worry, I'll be in the neighborhood. "

Nabiki let him go. She was pushing too hard for answers now, better

to wait until his guard was down again. She returned to the back yard

where Kasumi was brushing some dust off the top of the sensor.

"Please Kasumi, do you have to clean that thing?" Nabiki lamented.

Kasumi shrugged her shoulders a little. "We wouldn't want the nice

man's machine getting broken would we?" She thoughtfully brushed away

another bit of dust. "Electronic components are so sensitive to dust."

Mister Tendo placed a hand on Nabiki's shoulder. "What was that you

and Mister Ferguson were discussing? There isn't anything wrong is there?"

Nabiki looked up at her father. "No daddy, nothing like that."

"Good. Good." He replied. Ferguson's thousand yen note for the day

was burning a proverbial hole in the pocket of his gi. He needed a carton

of cigarettes for the big game of shogi he and Genma were going to play

this evening.

"I'll be going out to get some cigarettes," he declared.

Kasumi's face brightened even more. "That's wonderful father! I need

to return a book to Doctor Tofu. We can walk together."

"A splendid idea Kasumi!" Soun cried. "Let's go."

Kasumi called to Nabiki as they walked out the front door. "Oh Nabiki!

I left some food and some cookies out for Ranma when he finishes with the

morning lessons. Would you make sure he gets them?"

Nabiki waved good-bye to them. "Sure thing sis."

She sat down on the deck and debated the merits of changing into a

bathing suit to get a tan. Beach Season was coming up, and it just wouldn't

do to start her tan then. No sense looking like tourist, even if I am one,

she thought.

That decided she went upstairs to her room and changed into a racy

little spaghetti string number. When she came downstairs Ranma was

standing in the kitchen wolfing down the food Kasumi had left out for him.

He looked up from his meal to eye Nabiki's appealing figure.

"Nice suit!" He complemented. "Haven't seen that one before."

She struck a glamour pose. "You like?"

Ranma scratched the top of his head. His hair wasn't yet fully grown

out from his time in the JGSDF. "I've seen more cotton in an aspirin bottle."

"That's the appeal, my dear Ranma," she replied.

"You going to the beach or something?" he asked. The merits of Nabiki

in a tiny bikini notwithstanding, he told himself he was hungry. He

returned his attention to the food. He didn't want to seem like he was

staring at her or anything.

"No," she replied in a bored tone of voice. "I just thought I would

catch a little sunshine." She looked him over from head to toe.

He had seen that look on her face before and was about to bolt out of

the room. That look was the look of machinations that would upstage

Machiavelli. He could almost hear the wheels turning in her head. He

knew he should run.

But she was such a distracting sight in that bikini that he was trapped

like a moth before the flame. She had him.

"Oh, my dear Ranma, I just had the greatest idea..."

His deerlike eyes glazed over, and he wondered when the truck was

going to hit.

"There. I think my bathing suit looks much better on you," Nabiki said

approvingly. She was now wearing a far tamer black one piece.

A still wet Ranma-chan looked down at herself in Nabiki's string bikini.

The top was held up almost as much by the power of positive thinking as it

was by the straining straps. Lacking significant lining, the flimsy suit's

dampness was all too apparent in the right places.

"If this thing was any smaller it would be illegal," Ranma-chan declared.

"What's it made out of? Cheesecloth?"

"Well I admit that you aren't actually supposed to go swimming with it,"

Nabiki said by way of apology. "But getting you wet was the only way to bring

out the woman in you."

"Ha. Ha. Ha..."

"Oh stop whining about it. For once I'll owe you a favor."

Ranma-chan looked herself over again.

"I'm not sure it's worth it. Now what do you want me to do again?"

Ferguson made another sweep with his beta/gamma radiac. He'd

covered most of Nerima after gathering up the day's data tapes. Copies

of those tapes were being sent to London via satellite to be compiled by

supercomputer. Ferguson would begin his own calculations tonight after

dinner. His predictions were usually closer to observed data (if much

slower in coming), a fact which he took great pride in.

He was just making his last sweep when he saw the most beautiful

red haired girl saunter by in the skimpiest little bikini he'd ever seen.

He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. This just

doesn't happen in quiet Tokyo suburbs, does it?

Ranma-chan grinned coyly for him.

Ferguson set down his radiac.

" Excuse me love, but have I seen you here before? "

Ranma-chan smiled as she spoke. " Oh I don't think so, but I have

seen you around. "

Ferguson was delighted to find that this red haired vixen spoke

passable English. He didn't know of many Japanese girls with red hair,

but he wasn't complaining either.

" Well, I'm just doing a little research, that's all. "

" Are you American? " Ranma-chan asked, laying it on thick.

" Um, no. I'm British actually. "

Ranma-chan looked even more enthused. " Even better! " She cried.

She then looked him over, trying to discern just exactly what it was he was

doing before she had bounced up to him.

" Is there something wrong? " Ferguson asked, a little confused at

what she was doing.

Ranma-chan cranked up the charm another notch. " Oh I was just

wondering what kind of research you were doing. " She batted her lashes

at him. " That's all. " I can't believe Nabiki talked me into this! She

thought bitterly. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time...

Ferguson picked up the radiac, which clicked a few times as stray

gamma rays interacted with the ion chamber. " I'm surveying background

radiation from cosmic rays, " he said to her. " I'm picking up a little from

the rocks in the ground, and a little from the long-lived decay daughters

that the Korean nuke's fallout created, but most of the radiation is coming

from the sun. "

Ranma-chan managed a blush while gesturing to her scantily clad self.

" Gee, I guess I don't have a lot of protection from that! " She gushed.

Gods I can't believe I said that!

Ferguson stifled a grin. He just couldn't believe such a saucy lass as

this could exist here in quiet Nerima!

Ranma-chan's coy smile evaporated in an instant as she heard a voice

she hadn't in six months.

"Oh Pig-Tailed Girl! How I've longed to see thee!" Tatewaki Kuno

cried.

Ranma-chan turned with infinite resignation to have Kuno sweep her

up into his arms. He looked as healthy and whole as he ever was. His

grip was certainly strong enough.

"Oh my love!" he continued. "Long have I languished without thy

hale glow to sustain me! Oh the Heavens weep with joy to behold our

reunion!"

Ranma-chan gave him a wan smile. On the one hand she was happy

to see Kuno looking well since his near fatal wounding. On the other

hand, his hands were trying for places they just didn't belong.

"Oh Kuno darling?" she asked sweetly.

Kuno's eyes went dewy at the Pig-Tailed Girl's ardor. "Yes my love?"

Ranma-chan head butted him as hard as she could. Kuno dropped like

a rock, managing to set Ranma-chan gently on her feet before falling over

face first.

What a soft head. Good thing he never got shot there... Ranma

thought as Kuno blacked out.

Ferguson had by this time excused himself with all possible haste.

Ranma-chan looked around in vain for him. Kuno snored at her feet.

She balled her hands up into fists and growled to the sky, "I can't

believe I went through all this for nothing!"

Kuno continued to snore unconsciously. Ranma-chan sighed and

picked him up into her arms. As long as he stayed out cold things would

be okay.

Her tiny bikini top chose this moment to finally give.

Nabiki suppressed a grin when she saw Ranma-chan come home carrying

Tatewaki Kuno in her arms. When she saw that Ranma had lost her bikini top,

her laughs came full force. Ranma-chan shot her a death look and then dropped

Kuno to the floor. She stormed into the kitchen for hot water.

Nabiki continued to chuckle as Ranma-chan stumped away. Kuno began to

stir, and she helped him to his feet.

"Uhhh... Where am I?" Kuno asked dazedly.

"Why hello Kuno-baby!" Nabiki purred.

Kuno looked at her for a moment in confusion. "Nabiki Tendo, I do

not recall inviting you to my domicile."

"That's because this is my domicile," Nabiki countered.

Kuno gave the home another look. "Why so it is," he observed sagely.

"Tell me, Nabiki, how is it that I have come to this humble place?"

Nabiki shrugged. "Well gee, Kuno-baby, the Pig-Tailed Girl brought

you here. You were out cold in her arms!" She could just imagine Ranma

wincing at her words upstairs, and it brought another grin to her lips.

Tears began to well at Kuno's eyes. "Oh my beloved!" he cried.

"Her devotion to me is selfless beyond measure! How worthy she is of my

affections!"

He took Nabiki roughly by the shoulders and shook her.

"Tell me, Nabiki Tendo, wither the Pig-Tailed Girl?"

Nabiki's head bobbed back and forth as he shook her.

"Answer me, woman! Stand not before the mighty Tatewaki Kuno and

his heart's desire!"

Nabiki mustered the strength to bring her fist into communion with

Kuno's glass jaw. The swordsman once again sought the refuge of

oblivion's embrace. As he buckled at her feet she shook her head sadly.

"You are absolutely hopeless Kuno-baby."

Ranma came downstairs wearing his red satin Chinese-style shirt

and black trousers. He brushed at his still wet hair, flicking his black

pig-tail over his back. It was obvious that he was upset with Nabiki, but

he helped her carry Kuno out of the foyer and into the living room.

Nabiki was undaunted by his ire. "So? What did you find out?"

Ranma gave her a black look. "Well I found out that Kuno's as

pompous and lecherous a jerk as always!"

Nabiki brushed him away with both hands. "No. No. Before that."

He grit his teeth, biting back a few choicer curses. "Well your

mystery man is British," he began.

"I knew that already. What else?"

Ranma tried a little harder to restrain himself. "Well he's also

checkin' the neighborhood for radiation. He had this Geiger counter or

something in his hand."

"That's odd," Nabiki remarked. "What does that have to do with

power lines?"

"You tell me," Ranma said idly.

"Well what else?"

Ranma lowered his eyes in disgust. "I was just getting him to tell me

what he was doing when Kuno showed up."

Nabiki nodded. "I can guess what happened from there."

Ranma looked to Kuno's unconscious form. "Exactly. He squeezed

me so hard your bathing suit's top snapped its straps."

Nabiki winced. "That was an expensive little item," she said to herself.

Ranma began to back away. "Aw come on, how could something so

small cost very much?" He said uneasily. Just how much is this gonna

cost me?

Nabiki read his look and dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Don't

worry about it Ranma. After all, I did put you up to this. You're off the

hook."

"Sorry I couldn't help out more," he offered.

"Not your fault. I'll just have to use other angles to find out what's

going on around here," she replied. "Keep an eye on Kuno-baby while I

get some ice for his head."

"Okay."

He sat down beside Kuno and waited. For curiosity's sake he looked at

Kuno's belly, opening the kendoist's gi. An oblong pink scar ran across the

man's taut belly. He could see two small puckered scars where drainage

tubes had been run into him below the wound scar. A delicate tracery of

tattoo lines whirled around the wound scars -obviously Kuno was intending

to conceal them, but the majority of the work was incomplete.

He's probably having it done the old fashioned way; with bamboo

needles.

"Oh wow," Nabiki remarked. She was now standing over them. "Is

that where he was shot?"

Ranma looked up at her. "Yup. I thought he was a goner too."

She knelt beside Ranma and ran her fingers over the scar on his left

arm. The first man he'd ever killed had shot him through that arm as he

fell. (A fact he was by no means proud of.) Ranma hadn't even known

he was wounded until he awoke in Yokosuka.

"And this is where you were shot," she said.

"Yup."

"Maybe you should do what Kuno's doing and have it tattooed over,"

she suggested.

Ranma shook his head slowly. "No. It's always going to be a reminder

for me... I want it that way." His eyes had that far away look that he

sometimes had when remembering.

Unlike some of the others Nabiki had known who had gone to Korea to

fight and had come home alive, Ranma was never a braggart about it. Even

though he was promoted in the field and wore more medals than any of the

aforementioned others, he never talked much about it. When he did it was

always about someone or something else.

She looked away. Akane was probably the only person he would

ever open up to about his time in Korea. Ukyo too, I guess.

"Sorry to pry," she said. She hefted the ice pack over Kuno.

Kuno began to stir as Nabiki set a towel filled with ice atop his

forehead.

"Ahhh... Curse these fainting spells that afflict me. Mayhap my dear

sister has returned to her old ways and is trying to poison me again."

Kasumi and Mr. Tendo returned home.

"Oh hello!" Kasumi cried in greeting to Kuno. "I had the feeling we

would have a few guests over for dinner, so I've already brought extra

groceries home."

"Smart thinking sis," Nabiki said.

Kuno held the ice pack to his head and stared hard at Ranma.

"Wither the Pig-Tailed Girl?!"

Ranma shrugged. He was never going to convince Kuno about his twin

identities, so it was just easier to play along. "Beats me Kuno. She just

delivered you here and asked us to look after you. She was gone as soon

as we turned our backs."

Kuno nodded solemnly. "Ah my lovely. So like the wind she is..." He

struck a dramatic oratory pose.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometimes declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee."

"Very good!" Kasumi said happily. "I do so adore Shakespeare's

Sonnets!"

Ranma and Nabiki looked at each other.

"Huh?" They said in unison.

"That's my girl," Mr. Tendo said proudly, setting his hands upon

Kasumi's shoulders.

Kuno looked to Kasumi and bowed. "As do I, milady, but do not think

me ungracious that I must beg decline to sup with thee and thy family. My

lovely wind is upon the fair skies of May and I must seek her thence."

Soun looked to his eldest daughter. "What did he say?" He whispered.

Kasumi touched her fingertips to her lips to hide her smile. "I believe

Mister Kuno has other plans for the evening."

"Oh. Right."

"Farewell then!" Kuno cried, and strutted nobly out of the door.

"Oh wow, Ranma, Kuno-baby was almost civil to you." Nabiki observed.

"Yeah, and he didn't ask about Akane either," Ranma added.

"I'll be starting on dinner soon, why don't you all watch television

while you wait?" Kasumi said cheerfully.

Nabiki started up the stairs. "I've got a little reading to do, see you

at dinner."

Ranma watched Nabiki go. That left him alone with Mr. Tendo. The

last thing he wanted was quality time with Soun Tendo. Doubtless he

would broach the subject of wedded bliss.

"I'm gonna do some practicing in the dojo. I mean I've gotta be at my

best if I want to take over some day," he said quickly.

Mr. Tendo nodded approvingly.

Whew! Say just enough to keep him off my back without commiting

myself. That's the ticket.

He bounded off to the dojo. Tomorrow Akane would be home.

Chapter Three

"Hi, Ucchan," Ranma said as he settled into his regular seat at Ucchan's

Okonomiyaki.

Ukyo winked at him and flipped an okonomiyaki onto a ready waiting

plate.

"Can't talk now, honey, I'm swamped," she said happily.

Ranma looked around the shop. The place was full all right. In addition

to the regular lunch crowd there were at least twelve westerners present.

Five different languages mingled with the sounds of Ukyo's rapid fire cooking.

Konatsu scrambled from table to table serving drinks.

Ranma made a low whistle.

"Well I can't say I don't mind the attention, honey," Ukyo replied. She

flung three more piping hot okonomiyaki with expert precision onto the

westerners' plates. They cheered in appreciation.

"They can't all be here to study power lines, can they?" Ranma asked.

"I don't know; they've been speaking so many languages I can't make

anything out."

"Weird," he said, and let it drop.

"It gets even weirder, Ranchan, look who just walked in," Ukyo advised,

gesturing with one of her spatulas.

Ranma turned around to see Nabiki walking in with Ferguson in tow.

"Hello... What is this?"

If Nabiki noticed Ranma, she made no sign. Ranma turned back around

to face Ukyo again. Ukyo shrugged and slipped over to the other side of

the counter to take their orders.

I guess she decided to handle it herself, Ranma thought. He ate

and dropped some money on the counter. Ukyo threw him a wave as

he got up.

"See you tonight?" She asked.

Ranma started. "Um, I'm gonna be at the train station tonight."

Ukyo's eyes widened. How could I have been so stupid?

"I meant tomorrow night," she corrected.

"Tonight's fine," he said. "Just a little later than usual."

She flashed him a 'V' with her fingers and got back to her customers.

Akane stepped off the train with her bags. She had sent the majority of

her things home a week earlier, which meant that Ranma wouldn't have to

carry so much. For this he was grateful. Taxis were hard to come by in this

part of town.

"Miss me?" She asked.

"Not at all," Ranma replied casually.

"Liar," Akane shot back.

"You're right," he admitted. He swept her up into his arms and spun her

around. Akane laughed like a little girl then, although she was anything but

a little girl. Ukyo was right. Somewhere in the last three years they had

grown up. In his arms was a beautiful woman.

She saw the way he looked at her and stopped laughing. There was the

most fascinating fire in those eyes, something she thrilled to see every time

she looked. He held her gently off the ground and they drank in the sight

of each other.

Three kids ran by screaming bloody murder, which startled both out

of their reverie. They watched as the three tore off down the platform

followed by an over wrought mother. Akane chuckled to herself.

"What's so funny about that?" he asked her.

She took his arm in hers and led him off the platform. He caught up

her bags on the move.

"Nothing, I was just thinking."

"Anything you want to share?"

She chuckled again. "Not at the moment."

They walked arm in arm, making small talk as they went. The birds

were singing the last arias of the day and the cherry blossoms suddenly

flurried around them with a gust of wind. The sky was starting to purple

in the east as they neared home.

"Hmmm..." Akane murmured. "It's good to be home again."

"It's good to have you home," Ranma said quietly.

Akane kissed him behind the ear, which surprised him. "It's not home

without you."

They passed one of Ferguson's ubiquitous white sensor boxes. Akane

stopped Ranma short to look at it. Ranma, like the rest of the neighborhood,

had become accustomed to seeing the things and thought nothing of it.

"What on Earth is that?" Akane asked.

Ranma pointed to the box. "A bunch of gaijin scientists are here

studying the power lines. These boxes are collecting data for them. Just

wait 'till we get home, we have one in the backyard."

"How strange... What's wrong with the power lines?"

"Nothing so far as I can tell."

They reached the dojo. Soun, Kasumi, Nabiki, Genma, Nodoka and

Doctor Tofu waited for them at the gate.

"Welcome home!" Kasumi said to Akane as she caught her sister up

in a hug.

"You're looking great!" Doctor Tofu added.

"How are you, Akane?" Nodoka asked.

"I'm fine!" Akane enthused. "I think I've salvaged my grade point

average this semester."

"Well if you hadn't blown it last semester," Ranma observed dryly.

She wrapped one arm around Nabiki and lashed the other out into

Ranma's chin. Ranma's head rocked back in surprise, and he fell down on

his rear end.

"I can't imagine what could have disturbed my studies..." Akane said,

and returned her attentions to the rest of the family.

Ranma massaged his chin. Yep. Akane's home again.

"All of the equipment is in place, Professor."

McFogg looked up from his tea. "Thank you, Katy."

Katy Price offered a stack of hardcopy to him. "This is the latest

update from London. The time for the event is predicted to be the 18th

of May at 14:37 GMT."

McFogg scanned the contents of the report.

"The location is still unchanged?"

"Yes, sir. Davidge is very confident that this is an indication of our

model's accuracy."

"Hah," Ferguson retorted. He entered the hotel suite through the

adjoining room door.

"You wish to discuss something, Ferguson?" McFogg said between sips.

"I would like to point out once again that there are too many unknowns

in our model that we've ignored to start hailing it as bloody Gospel,"

Ferguson said sternly. He poured himself a glass of Port and took a seat

across from the two.

"Don't forget that you were the one who tweaked the unknowns out

of the model to make it work," Katy observed.

Ferguson shook his head. "You're reading far too much into this, Katy

dear. What I did for the equations was simplify them into something we

could use as a barometer for these events. The model is just a general

forecaster. The more we use it, the more the accumulating errors will

throw us off. We'll end up in Turkey like Casimir's group."

"Then what do you suggest we do with the model? Revise it again?

We don't have time for that!" Katy protested.

"I agree," McFogg added. "I think it wouldn't be a disaster to continue

to use our model at least for now." He looked at Ferguson, who was

shaking his head. "How are your corrections coming? I know you've been

working on them in your off time."

Ferguson sighed. "I've worked most of the terms out so far. I can fax

them to London tonight if you like, but all it will really do for the model

is shore up the walls while the foundation continues to crumble."

McFogg leaned over to pat Ferguson's knee. "I understand your

concerns, lad, but at the moment the model is the best we have. We simply

don't have the time to start over from scratch. It's another 88 years to

the next big one."

An old man in his late sixties sat by the window of his comfortable

Old World hotel room. The heat of Istanbul in the late spring was rising

with noon. Soon the Muezzin would be calling the faithful to prayer and

then a short nap before life picked up again in the city at nightfall.

The man listened to vibrant classical music playing from a compact

disc player purchased in Singapore on his journeys.

"I thought Gliere went out of fashion with the Second Revolution," a

young man observed in Russian.

The old man shook his finger slightly at the young man. "Beauty

never goes out of fashion," he replied. "You young people make too

free an association between Reinhold and the State. Besides, I find his

opera 'Shakh-Senem' very appropriate music for this land we are in."

The young man pulled a heavy manila envelope from a leather attache.

"I have the results from our observations, Doctor Casimir."

Grigory Andreiyevich Casimir took out a pair of wire frame bifocals and

put them on. A cup of black-as-tar Turkish coffee steamed at the end table

next to the elderly scientist. Casimir disdained the way the Turks sweetened

their coffee to point of syrup, but he appreciated their habit of boiling it

down to tar.

"And...?" Casimir asked. He really wasn't reading the report. His eyes

instead watched the patterns of steam wafting from the cup. Such beauty

there in that random steam...To think that some young Cossacks want to

reduce it all to math and call it 'God in the Machine.'

"It appears we have recorded a harmonic of a previous event," the

man replied.

Casimir nodded sadly and took a sip from his coffee.

"You are quite sure, Vanya?"

Ivan Tarchenko returned his nod. "Yes, Doctor. I have checked the

data again and again personally. We have recorded a delayed harmonic

from the Vaslow Event."

"Unfortunate," Casimir replied quietly.

"Yes, Doctor," Ivan offered. "At this point it seems as if our model

has a significant error or series of errors. The team in St. Petersburg is

already rechecking their calculations, but they need more access time on

the American supercomputers. There isn't much left in the budget for

computer time."

"Do not fret, Vanya, the money will come along."

"It's not the money, Doctor. It's the lost time. We have none to spare

and now we are without a valid reference point for the next event."

Casimir thought for a moment.

"Where is my old friend Balthazar right now?" He asked.

"His team is in Japan, a suburb of Tokyo. We thought he was crazy

because our model didn't come close to predicting Tokyo in any of the

simulations we ran. Perhaps if we had more computer time..."

Casimir stood up, feeling his tired bones creak. "This is not a game of

computers, Vanya. This is far more intuitive than any machine can divine."

He walked over to the window and the ancient Istanbul skyline. "I should

have been more active in this."

"What was that, doctor?" Ivan asked.

Casimir shook his head. "We need to get back on track, Vanya.

Perhaps we can beg some scraps from Balthazar's table."

"I don't think Professor McFogg will be very charitable this close to

the end. He has been working for this moment for a very long time."

"We started this together, Balthazar and I. Fifty years of our lives

spent chasing this dream. More if you count what our fathers accomplished...

and failed."

"You are referring to 1908, Doctor?"

"I am. It is of particular distress that the previous event took place

on Russian soil and still we failed."

"Perhaps our time had not yet come, Doctor Casimir," Ivan said.

"Yes... Perhaps."

"I shall dispatch Fyodor to Japan."

Casimir raised a bushy eyebrow. "That is bit heavy handed, don't you

think? 'The Ukrainian' was appropriate for Stalin's time, but not now."

"We have no one else directly available doctor. We have no time to

delay in sending a request to Moscow."

"Yes. Yes. The Old State is gone but the beauracracy is eternal. Send

Fyodor, but make it clear that he is to restrain himself."

"Yes, Doctor."

Chapter Four

Akane breathed in the delightful perfume of the cherry blossoms and

sighed happily. Today was a beautiful morning, calm and cool. The sun

darted between puffy banks of cumulous clouds, throwing great lazy

shadows against the bright rooftops and walls of the city.

She was waiting for Ranma to finish with the morning classes and join

her for lunch. Ukyo hadn't come over to visit last night, and she wanted

to at least stop in to the restaurant and say hello to her. She could use the

company.

I could use the company, Akane thought suddenly. Nerima's

such a quiet place now.

She walked to the vacant lot where she was to meet Ranma.

Ferguson's boxes, as they were now being called, were arranged in a

grid pattern across the entire lot. Each white box stood atop it's tripod

exactly ten meters apart from the others. Fiber-optic cable runs linked

each sensor to a small black case. The case had a large fiber-optic bundle

that ran to the far end of the lot and into a large white van trailer. No

less than three different satellite receiver/transmitters were deployed

around the trailer, and the smell of burning gasoline from a large

electric generator overwhelmed the cherry blossom air.

What the heck is going on here? She wondered.

Inside the van Ferguson was showing Nabiki the equipment and

displays. Her curiosity seemed harmless enough, and he figured if he

dazzled her with all of the technology, he wouldn't have to go into too

much detail about the purpose behind it. She was a smart one though,

and had subtlely pressed her questions home. He wasn't sure if he could

continue the run-around for much longer.

Either I spill my guts or I kick her out right now... he thought.

" So this is the composite display for magnetic flux, " he said,

pointing to one of the large flat LCD screens. " All of the magnetic

anomaly sensors are linked to a computer which processes the data,

filters out our established baseline levels, and displays the new variances

as colored pixels on the screen. "

The display was mostly blacks, purples and dark blues.

" As you can see, magnetic field strengths are very close to the

established baseline levels we took earlier this week. If levels dropped

lower, we would see grayscale colors for negative levels, and if they were

higher we would see more greens, yellows, and oranges for positive

levels. "

" So what does this have to do with the power lines again? " Nabiki

asked him.

Ferguson sighed.

" We had to take data on the magnetic fields generated by electrical

lines and from electrical appliances in the neighborhood to establish our

baseline levels. Power consumptions change during the day and night, and

so we had to compile the whole baseline in a time-indexed fashion. "

" In short...? " Nabiki made circling motions with her hand to get him

directly to the point.

" In short this experiment has little to do with power lines, "

Ferguson admitted.

" So then what exactly are you looking for? " Nabiki asked. " It has

to be small because I know our power lines don't generate strong magnetic

fields. "

Ferguson took a sip of tepid coffee. " We're looking for very localized

disturbances in the Earth's magnetic fields. "

Nabiki pointed outside. " Perhaps as small as this lot? "

" Something like that, yes. "

One of the instrument banks chirped for attention. Ferguson looked

over to the Magnetic Field Flux Display. A small violet blotch of color

moved towards the center of the screen and stopped.

" What's that? " Nabiki asked.

Ferguson punched a few commands onto a keypad. Another screen

began scrolling alphanumerics which he analyzed.

" Someone's standing out in the middle of the lot, " he said evenly.

Nabiki walked to the front of the trailer and looked out of the window.

She laughed briskly.

" Oh, don't worry, Fergy baby, it's just my sister! "

" What? "

" It's just my little sister Akane. She's probably waiting for Ranma. "

Ferguson eyes lit in recognition. " Ranma's that martial artist fellow

who's staying with you at the dojo? Your sister Kasumi told me a little

about him. "

Nabiki turned pale. " Oh yeah...? Just what exactly did she tell you

about Ranma? " I hope he doesn't know about Ranma's curse or the

jig is up!

" Just that he's the son of a friend of your father, and that he's

engaged to your sister. I presume that would be the very same Akane who's

tripping my sensors right now. "

Nabiki was quick to change the subject. " Um, she isn't ruining your

experiment is she? "

" No. The event we're looking for isn't predicted to occur for another

three days. We're just fine tuning the baseline for this particular location

right now. "

Akane sat down in the grass and studied the Ferguson's boxes. Each

sat there peacefully, doing heaven knew what. The tinny shrill you

sometimes hear when a TV set is on could be heard if you concentrated.

I hope this isn't cooking me or something.

Ranma appeared at the far end of the lot and started walking towards

her. She waved to him. He waved back. He had that fresh glow of sweat

on his face and arms that told her he had just concluded the day's lessons

and come straight here.

She offered him her hands, and he pulled her to her feet.

" Here comes another one, " one of the three researchers on duty in

the trailer announced. The display now showed a larger violet blotch in

the center.

Nabiki looked out the window. " Here's Ranma! "

"You could have at least bathed after the lessons," Akane scolded.

"You said to come and meet you here as soon as I could get away,"

Ranma retorted.

"I was going to suggest lunch at Ucchan's, but you can't go in there all

sweaty and smelly."

Ranma sniffed his armpit. "Who's smelly?"

Akane threw up her hands and was about to slug him.

Inside the trailer, alarms began to wail.

" What the hell?! " one of the men, named Ames, cried.

Ferguson checked the monitors. Bright blotches of color began to form

and swirl around the center where the violet spot shifted colors to green,

then yellow. Other displays began scrolling column after column of data,

and printers began spewing reams of hardcopy.

" It's starting! " he cried. He'd seen the patterns that were emerging

on the displays before.

" It's too goddamn soon for this! " another tech cursed.

" Get on the bloody phone and get McFogg down here now! "

Ferguson yelled back. " Tell him it's the real thing! Everyone else get

those recorders going! "

" All drives on line and recording! Patching direct to London! " a

third tech called out.

Nabiki looked dumbfounded as the four scientists scrambled about the

trailer calling up displays and tape drives and loading fresh reams of paper

into the printers. Nobody paid any attention to her as they shifted into

overdrive. She looked out the window at Ranma and Akane, who looked

like they were about to fight.

"You're so damn thickheaded!" Akane yelled.

"I'm thickheaded?!"

"Yeah!"

" Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! This one's gonna be huge! " the tech

manning the gravitic anomaly instruments cried.

The patterns of colored light on the magnetic field flux display

became a torrent of bright oranges and yellows. In the center was an angry

red blotch of intensity. Ranma and Akane were right in the center of the

center.

" I'm getting full scalar transients along our other remote sensors!

The lines are opening up! " Ferguson announced.

" There's six of them! " Ames concurred.

" That's impossible! " the second tech rebuked. " Scanner artifact

maybe. "

" I'm watching them unfold right now; if it isn't six lines than we're

reading a really fucked up harmonic! " Ferguson cried. How was this

happening now? Was the model even farther off than my calculations

predict?

Nabiki was frozen in place watching Ranma and Akane argue. The sky

outside was calm and sunny. There were no earthquakes or lightning or

gods knew what else should be happening the way the researchers were

carrying on.

"Not only are you thickheaded, but you're insensitive and selfish!"

Akane cried in a loud voice.

"Yeah I'm so insensitive that I walked all the way to the train station

last night to get you and carried your luggage all the way home!"

"You were just trying to get on my good side last night!"

"If that's all you think of me...!" He didn't finish because his spine

was beginning to tingle in the most odd way.

"What?!" Akane shouted back. "You're going to go home to your parents?!"

Ranma grit his teeth. "WELL EXCUSE ME FOR LOVING YOU!!!" he bellowed at

the top of his lungs.

Akane's eyes went wide.

Ferguson clenched his fists and rose out of his chair. The display was

an angry storm of electromagnetic fields swirling around the center of the

vacant lot. Colors were nothing but yellows, reds and in the center the

purest white.

" Almost here...Coming...Coming...Coming... "

Outside in the vacant lot time seemed to stop. Ranma and Akane

looked in each other's eyes for an eternity. All of their anger was gone,

siphoned right out of them. In it's place were emotions far stronger and

enduring.

" CLIMAX!!! " Ferguson shouted, raising his fists on high. " OH

YEEEAAAAHHH!!! "

A sudden gust of wind came out of nowhere, swirling around Ranma

and Akane for just a second. The wind seemed to lift their spirits higher,

drawing them both up onto their tip toes with joy. Ranma was only dimly

aware that he was taking Akane into his embrace. Akane fell into his arms

with an urgency she had never felt before.

" That's all, gentlemen, " Ferguson announced as the sensors stopped

chirping and the displays shifted back to blacks and dark blues. Printers

ceased their sawing away and tape drives stopped. The trailer fell eerily

silent.

That silence was broken a moment later when the assembled

researchers let out a collective cheer and began shaking hands and patting

each other on the back.

Ferguson made his way past the others when they were done

congratulating each other and stepped up next to Nabiki, who was staring

wistfully out the window. Ferguson noted what the woman before him

was looking at. Outside, in the center of the lot, Ranma and Akane were

engaged in a deep and passionate kiss.

"They're just so adorable together," Nabiki sighed.

Ranma and Akane broke from their kiss and drank in the light of the

other's eyes. Their hearts fluttered and their faces burned red. They'd

never kissed like that before. Neither could even remember what they were

arguing about just minutes earlier.

Nabiki and Ferguson stepped out of the van trailer along with two

other westerners. Nabiki was all smiles. The men were armed with a

dazzling array of hand held instruments, and began taking readings of who

knew what.

"All right you two!" Nabiki crowed.

Ranma and Akane flushed a deeper shade of red.

Nabiki slugged Ranma on the arm. "Way to go, Romeo. I always knew

you had it in you."

"Umm, what? Huh?" Ranma floundered.

"Don't deny it Ranma, I saw the whole thing."

"Nabiki! What were you doing spying on us?!" Akane demanded.

"Yeah!" Ranma added, now suddenly coherent.

"I wasn't spying. Mr. Ferguson was just showing me around their little

research setup and you two arrived. By the way, I think you two were

standing right in the middle of whatever it was they were looking for."

"Huh?" Ranma and Akane both replied.

"You two don't feel funny or anything do you? The way they carried

on in the trailer I thought a bolt of lightning was going to hit you."

Ferguson came up to them and ran some kind of sensor over and

around them.

" Kirlian's normal, " he called to one of the others.

" I found a 'cold spot', " the other man replied. He had a portable

digital thermometer in his hand. " About twelve degrees centigrade cooler

than ambient, I walked right into it. "

Ferguson joined him. He immediately sucked in his breath and shivered.

" I see what you mean. "

A bevy of rented white minivans raced up to the lot and more

westerners jumped out carrying armloads of gear. They began to survey

the lot for everything from ambient temperature to gamma radiation to

relative humidity. One stood close by with a small magnetic compass,

which spun crazily for a full ten minutes before righting itself in

relationship to the magnetic north pole.

Professor Balthazar McFogg stepped out of another minivan, flanked by

Katy Price. Ferguson ran over to them with an armload of hardcopy.

"You aren't going to believe this," he said.

"I'm having a hard time believing it now," McFogg answered. "You're

sure this was it?"

"Just look at this," Ferguson said, holding out printouts by the ream.

McFogg took half of the pile and Katy the other half.

"Six lines opened up today Professor," he declared.

"The model only predicted three," Katy protested.

"You're aware of my opinions on the model," Ferguson shot back. "If

anything this event is more proof of the model's shortcomings than

anything Davidge and his computer clowns can muster in it's defense."

"I'm afraid he's correct, Katy," McFogg said calmly. He showed her a

few pages of hardcopy. "Six lines opened up at this nexus."

"Does London have all of this?" Katy asked.

"We just barely managed to get the links up in time," Ferguson

answered. "Let them plug in the numbers all they want, but I don't think

any predictions the model comes up with will be near the mark. This event

was much bigger and days earlier than predicted."

"But it was still right on the mark for location," Katy rebuffed.

Ferguson didn't have any ready answers for that argument, but he still

wasn't convinced. "Today proves that there are factors we aren't taking

into account. Factors we can't identify, let alone understand. The errors

are going to keep piling up! Maybe we get close again the next time, but

what about after that?"

"Then we keep adding in correction factors from the new data we

compile," Katy replied coolly.

"Put in those 'correction factors' and you're still bailing out a

sinking ship with a bloody teaspoon!"

McFogg let them argue for a few minutes while he surveyed the lot.

A whole crowd of locals clustered at the edge of the lot, and even now

two little police scooters were arriving to keep the crowds back. However

in the middle of the lot two young ladies and a young man were being

questioned and surveyed by his research team.

"Ferguson!" he called in a loud voice that cut the argument short.

"Yes Professor?"

"Who are those three kids over there?"

Ferguson looked at Nabiki, Ranma, and Akane. "Oh, those three. The

young man is named Ranma Saotome, the two ladies are sisters; Nabiki and,

um, Akane Tendo. It appears Ranma and Akane were standing right in the

center of the nexus when it opened up."

"Why didn't you tell me this right away?" McFogg asked. He turned to

the minivan he had arrived in and beckoned the driver to get out and join

him.

Ranma couldn't believe all these people were making such a big deal

out of himself and Akane. They waved all manner of technology around

them; the clicking and chattering and beeping was getting on his nerves.

He felt fine and said as much to them when they asked in their broken

Japanese.

Ferguson he saw was talking to an older man, in his late sixties by the

look of him. He was a little heavyset, but seemed in good health. A large

ashwood pipe dangled from his lips. Next to him a willowy blonde was

arguing with Ferguson.

The old man next looked right at them and then to Ferguson. They

exchanged words and then the old man looked in the opposite direction

to the minivans.

"What the heck is going on, Ranma?" Akane asked.

"Oh man I don't believe it," he replied.

"Oh man, I don't believe it! Hey Saotome!" Hiro Ohata cried.

He ran past McFogg and company and joined Ranma, Akane and

Nabiki.

"Man, I thought this place looked a little familiar! If I'd have

known sooner I woulda stopped by!" Hiro said as he grabbed Ranma's hand

and shook it vigorously.

"What are you doing with these guys, Hiro?" Ranma asked. "And where

the hell'd you disappear to after New Years?"

Hiro brought up his hands in defense. "It's a really long story,"

he pleaded. "But hey, enough about me, you're looking good, Saotome!"

He gave Akane the once over.

"You too, Akane-chan!"

Akane blushed a little.

He looked them both over now as they stood side by side. His eyes

narrowed in concentration.

"Hey waitaminute!" he cried.

"What?" they both answered in unison.

Hiro grabbed their left hands and held them up. "What the hell is

this, man?"

"What?" they repeated.

Hiro shook their hands in his. "Where're the rings?!"

"What rings?!" they cried.

Nabiki began to laugh.

"The wedding rings?!" Hiro retorted. "I thought you two were a

done deal!"

Nabiki's laughter nearly brought her to tears. "Bravo, Hiro! You've

summed up my sentiments exactly!" she managed between gasps of breath

and melodious laughter.

Ranma and Akane could have boiled water with the heat that radiated

from their faces.

Hiro had to step back from all that radiant heat lest he be broiled.

"Oh let me guess, you're planning on a June Wedding! How silly of me, I

should have known better. That Saotome romantic streak in you wouldn't

settle for anything less."

Nabiki fell over laughing this time.

Chapter Five

With Hiro Ohata translating, Professor McFogg asked them a few more

questions; but other than a little gust of wind, neither felt anything

strange happen. They didn't mention the sudden overriding urge to kiss

each other. Even if it was the man's business (which it wasn't) he

probably would have dismissed it. There was also the matter of being

terribly self conscious about the whole thing.

Even as soon as the rest of the scientists had arrived, they began

packing up their equipment and leaving. Hiro said they would be moving

on to gods knew where soon enough. It would be good to see them go and

let the neighborhood alone.

Hiro now relaxed in the company of the Tendos and the Saotomes back

at the house. Kasumi brought the men a round of beers and left them a plate

of sandwiches to snack on. Nabiki had taken Akane upstairs to talk about

something.

"So tell me what happened to you after you left," Ranma pressed. He

was glad to see his friend, but he wanted some answers. Hiro's

disappearance was a shock when it came. He left no explanation.

"Well... It was after New Year's and I guess I felt my welcome was

about worn out. Ryoga was talking about some great journey, but I

figured anything out of direct sight was a big deal for him. And I still

had no idea what the hell I was going to do with my life. I was a ronin

before I got drafted and a ronin I would be after I got out. So I took a

long walk with Ryoga."

He took a sip of his beer. "Before you know it, I end up losing

Ryoga outside of Nagasaki. I looked for him for awhile, but I figured he

just wanted to be alone anyway. Me, I was kinda sick of Japan. I wanted to

see the world."

"What brought this on?" Ranma asked.

"Well it wasn't much, but being in the army and going to Korea

kinda got me started. I guessed things would be a little more enjoyable

if the locals weren't trying to kill me. So I got on a tramp freighter and

headed south."

"I thought you got seasick."

Hiro made a face. "Boy do I ever. Worst trip of my life, but it got

me out of Japan for nothing. I even got a decent wage and earned my

Able-Bodied tickets on the trip. I saw Thailand, Singapore, Burma and

finally Australia. I left the ship in Brisbane and made my way to Surfer's

Paradise."

"Why there?"

"Because, my friend, in Surfer's Paradise in March is the annual

IndyCarnival! I finagled my way into the semi-pro stock race. Just little

stuff really, cars that are actually straight off the production lines. I

won hands down."

"No way!" Ranma replied. Even Genma and Soun set aside their game

of shogi to listen to Hiro's tale.

Undaunted, Hiro pulled out his wallet and showed them the photo of

himself accepting a trophy and a kiss from a bikini clad girl. A garland

of flowers was around his neck and he stood in front of a black 300ZX.

"Wow," Ranma said, clearly impressed.

"Was there any doubt?" Hiro said smugly. "So anyways I get these

offers to drive for the AUSCAR circuit and even one for a NASCAR

team. (They were putting on an exhibition race there.) That's when I ran

into Professor McFogg. He was looking for an all around 'Man Friday'

as he called it. He promised a good salary, lots of travel with expenses

paid, what more could a wanderer like me ask for?"

Ranma smiled at his friend's good fortune. "Sounds like you've got

what you wanted out of life."

"For the moment," Hiro replied. "You look like things are kinda going

your way too."

"More or less," Ranma admitted.

"So just what are these scientists looking for?" Nabiki asked. She and

Akane had come downstairs to join them. Kasumi and Nodoka stepped in

from the kitchen with another plate full of snacks.

Hiro helped himself. "It's kinda strange really. I wish I had a stronger

math and science background, but that's neither here nor there. In short

they're running around the world trying to be there when some kind of

electromagnetic disturbance happens. They record all the data and send it

off to London to be crunched on by a supercomputer. The computer tells

them when and where the next disturbance will be. Of late though some of

the scientists are arguing about how accurate the computer is.

"They aren't the only ones either. There's a Russian group trying the

same thing, and I've heard rumors about others. That's also one of the

reasons why I'm Professor McFogg's Man Friday."

"Oh yeah?" Nabiki asked.

Hiro withdrew a SigArms P-220 from his coat pocket. The .45 caliber

semiauto pistol was totally illegal in Japan, a fact that wasn't lost on

the others.

"Oh my!" Kasumi cried.

"Put that thing away," Ranma said calmly.

"Sorry," Hiro apologized. "Sometimes things get a little sticky in some

of the places we go." he replaced the pistol in his pocket.

"Oh, do you have to go so soon?" Kasumi asked sweetly.

Nabiki yawned. "It's one o'clock in the morning, Kasumi."

Hiro shrugged. "Well I do have a plane to catch tomorrow. It's back to

London for awhile."

Ranma slugged him in the arm. "Howzabout keeping in touch for a

change?"

Hiro rubbed at his arm. "Okay. Okay." He pulled out his wallet again

and handed him a card.

Ranma looked at it. "What's this?"

"That's my personal card. It has my international voice-mail number

on it. Just call this number and leave your message. I'm usually on the

go, so I don't have any permanent residence. I'll call or write when I

can."

Ranma took his hand and shook it. "You better."

Hiro threw him a crooked smile. "You better send me an invite to the

wedding. You know what I had to go through to get your sorry ass home

to her."

"Hah!" Ranma retorted.

"What are you two talking about?" Akane demanded. She had just

come outside to catch the tail end of Hiro's remark.

"A story for another time my dear," Hiro replied. "Gotta go! Thanks

for everything!" He jumped into a minivan and drove out of sight.

"And then he drove out of our lives..." Nabiki said with another yawn.

End of Part One


	2. Chapter 2

J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

CHASING THE WIND

Part Two: Vacation Plans.

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man

Fission Park group of scientists arrive in Nerima armed with arrays of strange

white boxes. They claim to be conducting a survey of the neighborhood

power lines, but Nabiki suspects that there is more going on. She enlists

the aid of Ranma, but the martial artist is foiled by the return of Kuno.

Akane returns home after completing her first year of college. She

and Ranma meet in the vacant lot, which is now infested with more of

the white boxes. Nabiki gains the confidence of one of the leading

researchers, and learns that they are looking for a peculiar 'magnetic

disturbance' that has been predicted to occur within the vacant lot.

Akane and Ranma are at ground zero when the 'event' occurs three

days early. Nothing appears to happen to them, but they are questioned

by the leader of the scientists, a Professor Balthazar McFogg. Hiro

Ohata returns as the Professor's Man Friday.

The scientists leave, and peace returns to Nerima.

But as we all know, it can't last for long...

Chapter One

A mortar shell burst overhead, ripping a circular swath of mud out of

the hill and showering them with it.

"Third Platoon form a skirmish line on the ridgeline!"

Ranma looked to Sergeant Yoshida, who circled his hand to get the

platoon on their feet. Ryoga grunted something which was lost over the roar

of two Marine AV-8B Harriers as they crested the blackened hill to their

backs. Rockets spurted from underwing pods with great poffs, and screamed

overhead with fountains of orange sparks to explode at the base of their

hill.

The radio crackled with many hurried voices nearby as Hiro tried

reestablishing communications with Division. The entire Main Line of

Resistance was being thrown back by the North Koreans, and they were about

to evacuate their positions or be encircled and destroyed.

"On your feet!" Yoshida growled. He was the acting platoon leader

after their lieutenant fell to a mortar round.

The platoon crawled out of shell craters and from under an overturned

Humvee. 120mm mortar bombs fell as hard as rain around them, killing one

of the machine gun teams in the support squad with a flash of light and a

deafening boooom. Fresh clods of mud and blinding sprays of murky water

erupted around them. Ranma watched in disbelief as Ryoga crawled out to

recover the weapon and ammunition; the team was beyond help. An explosion

drove him down into the mud with a curse a moment later.

As he picked himself up out of the cold mud, Ranma heard the Old Man,

their not so old Company Commander, yell over the din.

"First Platoon falls back to the next ridge, Second follows at two-

hundred meters, Third and the Support Squad pull rearguard and fall back

on orange smoke!" His orders were passed along with hoarse screams as the

artillery picked up the tempo even further.

"You got that, people?" Yoshida barked over the din. "We move on orange

smoke. Stick around, and you'll get killed by your own artillery." Ranma and

the others shot back replies as Hiro gave him a thumbs up as radio contact

was reestablished.

Ranma looked to Ryoga, who nodded grimly. They would have to hold

the hill long enough for the rest of the company to withdraw. Their own

withdrawal would be supported by massive airstrikes and an artillery

barrage that will fall on their own positions.

"First Platoon, move out!" the Captain yelled.

Ranma watched them file out of their holes and start over the other

side of the hill at a trot. The Captain joined up with the Second Platoon

as they prepared to disengage. Another volley of rockets from the Harriers

raced overhead with earsplitting screams.

The barrage continued to drop all around them. A kid Ranma barely knew

was lifted into the air with another explosion. Only at apogee did he

realize that the kid was dismembered in the blast, and his arms and head

continued on while his ragged body spiraled down the muddy hill in pursuit

of First Platoon.

"Get up behind these rocks!" Yoshida barked, pointing a finger.

Ranma leaped up into the open, weaving and dodging the explosions. He

ran for the jagged outcropping of white granite that would at least shield

them from the advancing North Koreans' bullets. As for the mortar rounds

howling in on them with increasing accuracy, he would have to wait and see.

He threw himself over the rocks, panting hard as his heartbeat

thundered in his ears. Looking back, he saw that the others were following

his lead and doing the same. Ryoga, Kuno, Daisuke, Gosunkugi, and Hiro

tumbled over the rocks close by, followed by Sergeant Yoshida and the rest

of the platoon. The new position was slightly better, with an overhang of

rock that would keep a direct hit from them if they crouched beneath it.

He continued panting for breath as he waited for the attack to

commence. The Koreans would be advancing behind an almost curtainlike

wave of artillery, so by the time the barrage let up, they would be on top

of them. It would be his first close-quarters battle since he came to Korea.

The respite would give him enough time to check his ammunition and supplies.

He had little of either.

From the valley behind him came a great wall of fire and smoke. An

instant later the ripping noise of North Korean MiG engines assaulted their

ears. Hiro, who was in contact with First Platoon, suddenly clutched at his

headset in pain.

What he heard was the horrible squawk of static as the radio on the

other end was engulfed in napalm.

First Platoon had just been incinerated to the man.

With a scream of rage, one of the support squaddies at the end of

the skirmish line lofted a shoulder-launched SAM at the fleeing MiGs, but

the Stinger had no lock, and corkscrewed out of sight. The jets escaped to

the north unscathed.

"Hang tough, Third Platoon," Yoshida told them, trying to keep them

focused on the task at hand and not on the slaughter of their buddies. "We

have to buy some time, but when the orange smoke comes in, I want you to

beeline it down the hill. First we get the hell out, then we regroup by

squads."

"Assuming we don't get bombed at the bottom of the hill," Daisuke

moaned.

"Don't say that," Gosunkugi whimpered.

"It's looking pretty bad," Ryoga admitted grimly. He clutched the

light machine gun a little tighter in his grasp.

"I ain't goin' out like this," Ranma shot back. "They want a piece of

me, they're gonna have to come and get it."

Tatewaki Kuno nodded assent, and drew his katana. His rifle was slung

on his back, and would likely remain there until the battle was done or

his life ended. "If ever the foe shouldst find vigor enough in their timid

hearts to do battle without their cursed artillery, the Blue Thunder shall

stand on this spot to face them."

There was nothing else to be said. Each man peered over the rocks to

look out over the smoke shrouded valley. They could make out the dark forms

of armored vehicles moving along the narrow bombed out roadway towards a

pass between their hill and the one their brother company was evacuating.

He knew that teams of soldiers toting Dragon antitank missiles waited in

the rocks at the top of the pass to try and halt the advance of the armored

column, but he saw it as nothing but a futile suicide mission for them. It

was probably only slightly more futile and suicidal as their own holding

action.

The artillery barrage stopped abruptly.

"Heads up, people!" a corporal from one of the other squads cried.

"Movement straight ahead; at the bottom of the hill, two hundred meters."

They zeroed in on the enemy and began firing. Chinese-made AK-47

knockoffs returned fire. Bullets zipped overhead and spanged off the rocks.

Clods of mud flew into the air and in their faces. Rocket propelled grenades

zoomed up the hill with whoooshes and terminated their flights with

thunderclap explosions to the left and right of Ranma and his buddies,

killing several in the other squads and tearing huge holes in their rock

barricade.

"RPGs!" someone warned a little late. Ryoga snarled and began hosing

suppression fire down the thin smoke trail paths of the rockets with the

machine gun.

Another volley of RPGs followed, screaming through the air straight

at them. Ranma ducked low under the rocks as the first one hit. The hard

granite rock was shattered over his head, pelting against his helmet and

the kevlar body armor that covered his back. Choking black smoke filled

his nose and throat, and he fell away stunned and coughing from the blast.

When he rose to face the enemy, he saw something that he couldn't believe,

something he wouldn't believe.

But there she was.

"Akane!" he cried.

She was standing in the valley between the lines. Bullets from snipers

zinged around her, kicking up fountains of spray ten feet high in the muddy

water. She was unhurt, but that couldn't last for long.

"Akane!" he cried again. He jumped to his feet and began sliding down

the ragged steaming hillside.

"You can't help her, Saotome!" Yoshida barked.

"Like hell!" Ranma screamed in reply. He was almost to her.

She saw him and shouted his name.

It seemed like every weapon in Korea was leveled against him.

Explosions threw him to the muddy ground, but he dragged himself upright

and slogged on. The howl of artillery over his head was a banshee keen that

he paid no heed. Akane was almost within reach. So close.

Orange smoke popped from marker rounds all around him. The distant

thunder of jets rose in his ears. Akane jumped into his arms but he knew

that they would have only a few seconds together before they were

annihilated.

Fire rained from the heavens. Everything flashed to brilliant white

light. The sound died away to a faint hum in his ears.

He was kissing Akane now in the vacant lot. She was the only person

in the universe, and he held her with all his might. Her heart beat

furiously against his; the two merging to make one harmony.

They were now standing atop the Eiffel Tower, looking out to the Left

Bank of the Seine. They were fighting someone, but he wasn't sure whom. As

he pondered this, Akane is pushed off the rail and falls. He jumped after

her, and they fall down down down...

"UUUHHHHAAAAHHH!"

Ranma sat bolt upright in his futon. A sheen of cold sweat slicked his

hands and brow. His heart took a few moments to calm, and his left arm

throbbed at the bullet wound scar.

"Oh jeez... It's just a nightmare." He said, more for the want of saying

anything rather than what he felt.

The clock ticked away the time. It was half past four.

He got up from the futon and looked out the window. The early

morning sky was clear and dark. The moon was setting, it's glow just

visible through the trees.

I need a drink, he thought. His mouth was desert dry.

He walked downstairs and into the kitchen. After downing two large

glasses of water in rapid succession he walked into the living room and sat

down. The room was dark and quiet, which suited him for the moment.

I don't think I'll be getting any more sleep tonight.

The sound of bare feet padding down the stairs was quite audible in the

still of the house.

It's a little early for Kasumi to be getting up, Ranma thought.

He peeked around the corner to see Akane in a little nightshirt walk

sleepily down the stairs. She looked miserable. She walked into the kitchen

and poured herself a few glasses of water, then came out into the living

room.

Ranma was seated again, giving her a tired but sympathetic look.

"You have a nightmare too?" he asked.

Akane sat down next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"The worst," she replied. He could see the tracks of drying tears on

her face.

He brushed at her matted hair softly. "You okay?"

She sighed tiredly. "Yeah, I guess so...It was just so real!"

"What happened, um, if you don't mind me asking?"

She sighed again. "I was lost. It was raining and voices were shouting at

me from nowhere and the thunder was so loud I thought I was going to go

deaf. Then I saw you come running towards me..." She drew breath to

continue speaking. "And then you were hit by lightning."

He brushed at her hair again, not having anything he could say to her.

"And then we were, um, well you know, kissing. Like yesterday in the

vacant lot."

Huh? Ranma thought suddenly.

"And then we were fighting on the Eiffel Tower of all places--"

"--And you fell off and I jumped after you." Ranma finished.

Akane gasped. She looked up at him in disbelief.

"How did you know?"

Ranma was silent a moment before answering.

"Because I had the exact same dream you did."

Chapter Two

Kasumi came downstairs at dawn to make breakfast. She had a date to

go shopping with her friends early, so she wanted to get the little chores of

running a household done without delay. She walked into the living room to

take a look at the weather outside and found Ranma and Akane there.

They were asleep. Akane knelt in Ranma's arms, her face nuzzled

against his neck. Ranma had his arms protectively around her.

How sweet, Kasumi thought to herself. I guess I should just

leave them there for awhile.

She went into the kitchen and started on breakfast. Before too long

Akane and Ranma poked their heads into the kitchen. The smell of food

had stirred them from their fitful slumber.

"Oh good morning!" Kasumi said, all smiles as usual. "I don't mean

to pry, but don't you think you would have been more comfortable

sleeping in your rooms?"

Ranma and Akane looked at each other and then Kasumi.

"We didn't sleep well last night," Akane said.

"I should think not," Kasumi replied. "I don't think Ranma makes for a

very good pillow."

The two began to blush.

"We both had nightmares!" Ranma protested. We came downstairs to

get a drink of water and just sort of fell asleep in the living room together."

"Well I guess you both had a very excitable day yesterday," Kasumi

observed. "And you did stay up too late."

Nabiki made her way into the kitchen. She was wearing a set of black

silk pajamas. She too was afflicted with 'morning hair'.

"Seeing you two up so early is a strange sight indeed," she remarked.

"Good morning Nabiki!" Kasumi said as she set the rice in the steamer.

"Good morning Kasumi," Nabiki returned. "If I could get a cup of

tea with some honey in it, that would be just wonderful."

Kasumi made her version of a frown. (i.e. the corners of her mouth

were no longer quite raised in a smile.) "Oh? You won't be having

breakfast this morning?"

"Afraid not sis. I have a taxi to catch. Shareholders meeting this

morning. I'll grab something to eat downtown."

Kasumi sighed. "Coming right up."

Nabiki regarded Ranma and Akane, who stood side by side in the

kitchen by the door.

"I heard some really interesting noises last night from you two," she

whispered conspiratorially.

"We didn't do anything!" Akane protested with a hiss.

"Yeah, we just didn't get much sleep last night," Ranma added.

Nabiki smirked. "Think about what you just said and then put yourself

in my place."

They both winced.

Kasumi handed Nabiki a steaming cup of tea.

"Here you are Nabiki. I put a little extra honey in it, the way

you like it."

Nabiki sipped gently at the cup. "Sis you are too wonderful for words."

Ranma decided to wait for breakfast in the living room. Akane followed

after a moment. She sat down next to him out on the deck facing the garden.

"I don't understand how we could have the same dream," she said

quietly.

"Me neither," Ranma replied. "I mean, I've had a few nightmares about

the war since I came home, but I figured that was kinda expected... But

this."

"We've never even been to Paris," Akane continued. "And when I

looked out across the city in my dream I recognized places. Like I had

been there."

"No kidding, I was thinkin' the same thing."

"AAAAHHHHH!!!"

Akane sat up in her futon trembling. Seconds earlier she had been

standing in some kind of temple atop a great step pyramid. Men in robes

of colored feathers and skin painted black raised bone knives to the sun

before plunging them into Ranma's chest.

When the blades sunk into his flesh there was a sudden gust of wind

and a feeling of energy and power coursed through her. For just a

moment she reveled in his sacrifice, overcome with the incredible

sensations that whipped through her body.

That was when she woke up. Fresh tears cascaded down her face.

How could I feel that way? She cried in her mind.

She got up and went to Ranma's room. She could hear him panting

for breath.

"Ranma?"

His voice was hoarse, as if he wasn't sure if he could speak.

"Y-Yeah?"

Akane let herself in.

"You're okay?" She asked.

Ranma's eyes were red and puffy. He shuddered once and tried to

collect himself.

"Yeah...Let me guess, you had another nightmare. One where you were

watching me get sacrificed by some freaks in feathered robes. In my dream

I watched the same thing happen to you."

Akane's knees began to buckle. He caught her and eased her down to

his futon. She held onto him and sobbed just once.

"How is this happening?" She whispered.

He gave her a comforting squeeze. "I wish I knew."

"What are we going to do?"

His hands brushed at her hair. "I don't know."

"You guys look terrible," Ukyo observed.

Ranma rubbed at his aching head. The migraines had been coming every

few hours. He supposed the lack of decent sleep he was experiencing was

responsible. Akane mumbled something that neither he nor Ukyo understood.

"Are you sick or something?" Ukyo asked. "I have a few home remedies

for summer colds."

"Thanks, Ukyo," Akane managed. "But I don't think it's a cold."

Ukyo patted both of their heads. "Well I'll see what I can do anyway."

"You have anything to help you sleep?" Ranma asked.

Ukyo looked puzzled. "Is that what's wrong with you two? You're

having trouble sleeping?"

"Well, not really trouble sleeping. It's just that we keep having

nightmares." Akane said.

"We?" Ukyo asked. "You mean you're both having nightmares?"

"Worse," Ranma said. "We're both having the same nightmares."

"What?"

"It's been going on for a week now!" Akane lamented. "We dream of

these weird places where we've never been and all these horrible things

happen to us."

Ukyo's brow furrowed in thought. "If I didn't know better I'd say

someone put the bad mojo on you two."

"Who would do such a thing?" Akane cried.

Boy does she have a short memory, Ukyo thought.

"Someone who would stand to gain by seeing you two suffer I guess."

"Kodachi?" Ranma asked.

"Could be, but this doesn't seem to be within her talents. This is way

too subtle and insidious, even for her." Ukyo replied.

"Shampoo?" Akane offered.

Ukyo shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows what she might have whipped up to

make your lives miserable. She does know about all kinds of potions and

what not."

"Perhaps we should have a talk with Shampoo," Akane said tersely.

"Do you really think she'd admit to it if she was responsible?" Ranma

asked. "No, I think we should pay a visit to Doctor Tofu. Maybe he can

help us get a good night's sleep."

They went to the Cat Cafe anyway. Akane led the way, and Ranma's

head hurt too much to risk an argument with her. He just wondered what

would happen if Akane wanted a reckoning with Shampoo.

He decided to go in first.

Mousse was wiping down a table. His glasses were squared away on his

face for once, so he actually recognized Ranma when he saw him. The look

he gave Ranma was less than hospitable at first, but when he came in with

Akane in tow, it softened considerably.

"Howya doin', Mousse?" Ranma offered.

Mousse wasn't sure what to make of Ranma's visit. He was actually

starting to get somewhere with Shampoo, and the last thing he needed was

for his true love to get confused again about her affections. He decided to

play it cool, and hopefully Ranma would leave on his own.

"I've been all right," Mousse replied.

"That's good," Ranma said.

"I almost didn't recognize you. Your hair is still a lot shorter than I'm

used to."

Ranma brushed at his head. "Yeah, it's just not growing in as fast as I'd

like." It wasn't quite true, as all he had to do was untie the binding hair on

his pig-tail and he would have more hair than he'd know what to do with. It

was just something to say.

Akane was now tired of this small talk.

"Is Shampoo here?" She asked tersely.

Mousse affected a puzzled look. What does Akane want with my

beloved Shampoo?

"Um, she's out on a delivery right now," he replied.

Ranma started to take Akane by the arm, "Well thanks a lot Mousse! I

guess we'll be going now."

Akane slipped off his grasp. "We'll wait," she growled.

Oh boy... Ranma thought blackly.

Mousse remembered his manners and showed them to a table. He

took Ranma's reluctance to stay as a good sign. Now what's Akane's

problem?

"Can I get you anything while you wait?" He asked.

"Water please," Ranma said. He produced a small bottle of aspirin

from his pocket.

"Coming right up," Mousse replied. He slipped behind the counter and

into the kitchen.

"Honestly Ranma, what were you thinking trying to leave without

confronting her?" Akane asked him.

"I was trying to prevent a war. I don't think my head could take it." He

answered. He rubbed at his temples for added effect. "Besides, we don't

have any proof that she's the one doing this to us."

"That's what we're here to find out," Akane said evenly.

They waited for twenty minutes. Mousse brought both of them glasses

of water and left them alone. Ranma gulped down three or four aspirin

and lay his head on the table to sleep. Whatever was fueling Akane's ire

was running low, and she was soon asleep next to him.

What's the matter with those two? Mousse wondered.

He didn't get the chance to ponder his question, because Shampoo

bounced in the front door a moment later in all her purple-haired glory. She

balanced her delivery box deftly upon one finger.

"Nihao Mousse!" She effervesced. "I home!"

Mousse grimaced.

Shampoo cast him a doubtful glance. Why isn't Mousse happy to see

me?

Akane sat bolt upright. The swiftness of her motion stirred Ranma to

bleary-eyed wakefulness.

Shampoo saw them sitting together at the table. Her eyes fell upon

Ranma, who was handsome even in his red-eyed insomnia. Her heart

trembled for just a moment, and she didn't know what to say.

On the other hand, neither did Akane. Her brain felt like a fuzzy mitten

was wrapped around it. Her body ached for a little more of the sleep she

had stolen during the wait.

And so the three stood or sat and stared at each other without a word

between them, while Mousse looked on in silent horror.

Finally Ranma broke the silence with a yawn. "Yo Shampoo, how're ya

doing today?"

The spell broken, Shampoo fairly glowed at him.

"Nihao Ranma! I so happy to see you!" She was ready to glomp onto

him, but Akane was shooting her a death look that intimidated even the

First of the Amazons. Akane was also beaming death thoughts to Ranma

for being even the least bit civil to Shampoo, but he was too tired to pick

up on the sudden nervous tensions emitted by her.

He waved uneasily and tried to smile. He yawned instead.

Shampoo frowned. "Why you and Akane look so tired?"

This was all the catalyst Akane needed.

"Yeah," she began, her blood beginning to boil. "Why do we look

so tired?"

Shampoo put her hands on her hips. "I not know why, Akane." She

offered a feline smile for her. "Perhaps you need get more sleep?"

Ranma was sure he heard something snap inside Akane's head.

Something important.

"It's all your fault!" Akane screeched. Her voice spiraled to levels

high into the ultrasonic. Mousse started in panic as the lenses of his

glasses began to vibrate. Ranma clutched at his ears, expecting blood to

drain out between his fingers.

Shampoo was unfazed.

"What my fault?" she asked in a calm voice.

Akane trembled. "What are you doing to us? We keep having

nightmares and we can't get any sleep!" Tears began to spill down her

face in frustration.

Shampoo looked at them with a mixture of sympathy and confusion.

"I really not know what you talking about Akane. This first time I see

you and Ranma in long while."

Ranma stood up and put his hands on Akane's shoulders. She

seemed ready to collapse. He took hold of her gently, and his show

of concern for Akane was not lost on Shampoo or Mousse.

"I'm sorry about this, Shampoo. We're both really on edge right

now. Thanks anyway," he said, and steered Akane towards the door.

Shampoo returned his tired look with one of affection. "Is okay,

Ranma. I forgive."

Ranma threw her a jaunty wave. "Thanks again."

"Ranma?" Shampoo asked.

"Yeah?"

"If you need, I can ask Great Grandmother about remedy to help you

and Akane sleep. Is no trouble."

"Thanks Shampoo. I really appreciate that. We're going to go see Doctor

Tofu right now, but if that doesn't work out we'll be back."

Shampoo waved good-bye as they walked out of the cafe.

Mousse came up behind her and set his hands upon her shoulders. She

started for just a moment, then relaxed as he began to massage her gently.

" What do you suppose is wrong with them? " She asked in Chinese.

" Not a clue, " he replied.

" Strange isn't it? " she asked softly. " It's strange seeing them

together like that, I never thought I'd see it. "

" Me neither, " Mousse replied, secretly happy to have the two gone.

" I saw you looking at me then, were you worried that I'd forget? "

Mousse was silent.

" I guess I understand. " Shampoo said quietly. " I imagine I would

be a little worried too if the tables were turned. "

" I was getting used to the ways things are, not the way they used to

be, " he said at length. She purred as he rubbed at her neck and shoulders

a little more firmly.

" I think I'll ask Great Grandmother to look into it, " Shampoo said

idly. " But first I'm going to give you just ninety minutes to stop that. "

When Ranma and Akane arrived, Doctor Tofu was expecting them.

"There you are!" He cried. "I was expecting you a little sooner. Kasumi

said you had left over an hour ago."

Ranma shrugged. "We got a little side-tracked."

Tofu gestured to his examining table. "Who wants to go first? Akane?"

Akane was drifting off to sleep standing up. She leaned heavily against

Ranma's side.

"I'll go," Ranma said. "Let's just put Akane down somewhere and let her

sleep."

Tofu showed them to a couch in the waiting room. Ranma set Akane

gently upon the couch and lightly kissed her temple. She mumbled something

affectionate and drifted off again.

With Akane settled, Ranma hopped up onto the table.

"So what seems to be the trouble?" Tofu asked. "Kasumi tells me you

and Akane have been having nightmares every night."

"That's pretty much it. They get so bad that we can't get any decent

sleep. As soon as we start dreaming the nightmares start."

"How long has this been going on?"

"A week. Ever since Akane came home from college."

Tofu pulled out a legal pad from a desk. "Could you tell me about

your nightmares?"

Ranma was expecting this. He took a deep breath and spoke.

"Well most of mine are about the war. I keep reliving stuff I did

there, things I saw, things I went through. I just figured that was pretty

normal for a survivor."

Tofu nodded. "Did you have a lot of nightmares about the war before

all of this?"

"Not a lot. Just every now and then. It was no big deal."

"You said most of your dreams were about the war. What about the

others?"

Ranma thought a moment. Most of those dreams were so fuzzy and half-

remembered he wasn't sure what he'd experienced.

"They're all really weird. Me and Akane are in all these places we've

never been before. Usually terrible things are happening to us. Those are

the dreams we end up sharing."

"Sharing?" Tofu asked. Kasumi hadn't told him anything about this.

"Yeah, we'd wake up and either one of us can tell what dream the

other had. That's the really spooky part about all of this."

Tofu scribbled some notes on the pad. "Let me get this clearly. You

say that you and Akane are having the same dreams simultaneously?"

"Yeah, didn't I just say that?"

Tofu got up from his chair and went to a bookshelf. He thumbed

through a few dusty old books, an ivory scroll case with several

yellowed scraps of parchment that looked ready to crumble, and a ratty

old spiral bound notebook his father had kept.

"To be honest, Ranma, this sounds more like a problem for a

psychologist than a chiropractor."

"I'm not crazy!" Ranma protested. "Getting there maybe, but I'm not

crazy!"

"I didn't say you were," Tofu said by way of apology. "I just said

that this sounds like something a psychologist should handle. You could

be suffering from some kind of post-traumatic disorder."

"Because of the war?" Ranma asked.

"It's possible."

"Then why is Akane having nightmares too?"

Tofu thought a moment. "I understand how close you and Akane really

are. It's possible she may be picking this up from you through some form of

empathy. Again, it's really not my area of experience; you should probably

be referred to a psychologist. I have a friend who has a practice nearby. I

could set up a consultation."

"Look, I already said I'm not crazy!" Ranma barked. His fatigue was

only fueling his irritability.

"There is one more thing I can do for you as your doctor," Tofu said

calmly. "I can help you get some needed sleep."

"Sleeping pills don't stop the nightmares," Ranma advised. "They just

make them worse."

"You know me better than that," Tofu scolded. "Now get your shirt and

trousers off and I'll give you an exam. There may be a somatic effect other

than your lack of sleep at work here."

Ranma did as he was told and stripped down to his boxers. Tofu worked

his hands across Ranma's body, keen fingers feeling out centers of tension

at the ganglia and the plexi. He worked his way along the spine from the

end to the base of the head; from the spine outward to the nerve endings in

the hands and feet. Each time his fingers played across Ranma's flesh he

clucked in astonishment.

"What is it, Doc?" Ranma asked.

"There's something very peculiar here," Tofu replied.

"What is it?"

Tofu pressed his fingers hard into the small of Ranma's back. Ranma

exhaled hard.

"Hmmm..." Tofu murmured.

"Come on, Doc, what is it?" Ranma pleaded.

"Have you been experiencing any problems in your martial arts studies?"

Tofu asked.

"Yeah. I thought it was because I wasn't getting any sleep."

"Problems with focus?"

"Yeah."

"That must be it," Tofu concluded. He consulted another shelf of books.

Ranma sat up. "'Scuse me, Doc, but are you gonna tell what the hell's

going on, or do I have to get violent?"

Tofu selected a book, then discarded it.

"Your ki is very badly out of balance," he said as he thumbed through

more books. "I've never seen a man so far out of balance, particularly a

martial artist."

"How did that happen?"

"Well, usually the only exterior stimuli that could cause this would be

some kind of injury, but you seem to be in perfect health. I'm going to

give Akane a similar examination and see what I find. If you would be so

kind as to fetch her please?" He buried his nose in another crusty old book.

"Yeah, sure." Ranma replied. He wasn't sure what to make of the

doctor's prognosis.

Akane came in looking a little better than she had at the Cat Cafe.

Tofu was quick and thorough in his examination. He shook his head in

puzzlement.

"This is extraordinary," he said to himself.

"What, she's out of whack too?" Ranma asked.

"What are you two talking about?" Akane grouched.

"Not only is her ki out of balance, it is completely opposite in

respect to you, Ranma."

"Weird," he replied, the best he could come up with.

"Hello, will someone please tell me what's going on here?" Akane asked.

Tofu regarded the two with a serious look. "I'm not sure how, but

something has skewed your ki in ways directly opposite of the other. Having

your ki so badly out of alignment is undoubtedly what is causing your

nightmares. Your opposite polarities might even explain why you are sharing

them."

"How did this happen? What can we do to fix this?" Ranma asked.

Tofu shook his head. "I can't say how this might have happened. As for

fixing it, I still have no ideas. The time-honored ways of meditative

purification and introspection may not work, and I doubt you would have

the presence of mind to perform them in your present condition."

"So what are we going to do, Doctor?" Akane asked. There was a sense

of hopelessness in her voice.

Tofu thought hard.

"I have an idea for a quick fix, but if we don't learn the cause of this

problem, finding a more permanent solution may be impossible."

"Go on," Ranma said.

"Your ki's are skewed in opposite respects to each other," Tofu began.

"Together however, you are balanced and whole. I would recommend

spending as much time in close proximity as possible. Physical contact

would be even better. Especially if you are trying to go to sleep."

"Physical contact?" Akane asked.

"Touching each other. Holding hands or some other casual contact. That

shouldn't be any problem for you, should it?" he teased.

"Um, no," they both said sheepishly.

"I'll continue researching this and get back to you as soon as I can.

There may be someone in the profession who has experience in these

matters. If there is, I'll find them. I promise you."

"This won't cure us?" Ranma asked.

"No. This is only a remedy for the symptoms. If we don't correct the

cause you two won't be able to let the other out of your sight for the rest

of your lives. Unless you both want to be basket cases!" he said, making

a joke of this last part.

Somehow Ranma and Akane didn't quite see the humor in this.

"I'm sorry, but this is the best I can do for you at the moment," Tofu

offered. "If you go on like this you'll only fall ill... At the least you

should be able to get some sleep. In fact I would recommend that as soon as

possible."

Ranma sighed tiredly. "Sure thing, Doc. Thanks for your help."

Tofu looked up from another dusty tome. "Get plenty of rest. If we're

ever to find the cause behind this, I need both of you mentally alert. Now

go, doctor's orders!"

"Going, we're going," Ranma managed. Akane was latched onto his

arm, and they walked out of the clinic.

Tofu ran his hands down his face.

Sleep well, kids. This may take awhile...

Ranma and Akane returned home. Kasumi was waiting for them with

lunch. Mister Tendo smoked a cigarette nervously.

"So, what did the good doctor say to you?" Tendo asked.

"He said something about our ki's being skewed or something. He's

working on it." Ranma replied sleepily. He didn't know how much longer

he was going to stay ambulatory.

"How awful," Kasumi said, full of sympathy.

"We're going to try to sleep for awhile," Akane said.

"G'night," Ranma added.

They both trudged up the stairs. Kasumi and Mister Tendo watched

them go.

Kasumi looked to her father when they were out of sight. "I do hope

they'll be all right."

Ranma and Akane reached the top of the stairs.

"Your room or mine?" Ranma asked.

Akane looked at him strangely.

"What?" she asked with a yawn.

"You want to sleep in your room or mine?" Ranma repeated.

"Mine of course," Akane replied without thinking about it.

"Whatever," Ranma answered. He led her to her room and opened the

door. Her little twin size bed awaited them. Somewhere in the back of his

mind he knew there would have to be contact a little more than 'casual' if

they both wanted to sleep on that bed. He was also too tired to care about

it.

Akane plopped down on the bed. Ranma started to lay down next to her,

and she looked at him in ire.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"What does it look like?" He replied tersely.

"It looks like you're trying to sleep in the same bed as me," Akane

said icily.

Ranma shook his head. "Weren't you awake when Doctor Tofu told us

what we had to do when we went to sleep? He said we had to be in close

proximity, physical contact preferred. Or do you want these nightmares to

continue?"

Akane sighed. "Sorry. I'm just a little nervous about this."

Ranma shrugged. "It's not like we'd be... You know, sleeping

together or anything. I mean, we hold each other's hands and it doesn't

bother you. Besides we'll both be out cold in no time."

She nodded in agreement. "I guess we'd be more comfortable on your

futon then."

She got up and led him into his room. Nabiki had been observing all

of this from her room, and she scratched her head in puzzlement.

They can't be... Although that would explain why they're so tired

all the time. Ah young love! In broad daylight with everyone home, no

less!

Ranma walked into the room and began pulling off his clothes by

force of habit. When he stripped down to his boxers he dropped like a

stone to the futon, which hadn't been stowed since his attempt at sleep

the previous night. Akane looked at his lean muscular form and swallowed

hard.

"Um, I'll be back in a minute," she said. Then she stepped out of the

room. She nearly bounced off her sister who had come creeping down the

hall for a closer look.

If Akane had a bit more presence of mind, she might have realized

what Nabiki was up to. Instead she cried, "Oops! I'm sorry, Nabiki."

Nabiki nearly jumped out of her skin. Realizing that Akane was totally

out to lunch, she composed herself.

"Just answer me once question, sis," Nabiki said, voice full of

concern. "I know you're going to sleep with Ranma, but tell me you're

taking certain, ah, precautions?"

Akane yawned fiercely, nodding and waving her off. "Uh huh."

Nabiki nodded in return. "I feel better about that. I just don't want

something embarrassing to happen, you know."

Akane went into her room and came back into the hallway several

minutes later wearing her little yellow cat pajamas.

She pulled at the fabric of her pajamas. "Satisfied?" she asked Nabiki

sleepily.

"Huh?" Nabiki spluttered.

"Good night, sis," Akane said, and went into Ranma's room. She closed

the door behind her, leaving Nabiki wondering out in the hall.

Akane settled in next to Ranma, who stirred long enough to make a

little room for her.

"Good night, Ranma," she whispered close to his ear.

He murmured some reply. She lay an arm around him and curled up to

sleep, smiling slightly to herself when he took the hand that lay over him

in his own.

Chapter Three

"Professor, we have a problem." Katy Price announced.

McFogg looked up from his copy of The Times with measured concern.

"What is it?"

"It's the model," Katy began. "Its current predictions aren't making

any sense."

McFogg frowned. "We're trying to quantify phantoms and yet you tell

me something doesn't make sense? Nonsense. You just don't know what

sense to apply to it."

Katy handed him a report because she didn't have a suitable reply for

the Professor. She might go 'round and 'round with Ferguson on this, but the

Professor had a way of disarming her every argument.

McFogg studied the report for several minutes, sipping on a cup of tea

as he did so.

"Ah. I think we must defer to Ferguson's corrections in this matter.

Perhaps Mister Clay may also be able to shed some light on this." He said

at length.

He tapped at a small black box on his belt. Hiro Ohata appeared a

moment later.

"What's up, Professor?" Hiro asked.

"See if you can fetch Misters Ferguson and Clay, please. It is very

urgent that I speak with them." McFogg said.

"Sure thing, Professor," Hiro replied. He was gone in a flash.

"You're growing overly fond of that 'Kato' of yours," Katy observed.

"How so?" McFogg returned.

"You never used to trust anything personally important to you to just

anyone."

"Nonsense, I tolerate you and the rest of this motley crew."

Katy clucked disparagingly at this. "I think you're intolerable most

of the time," she said.

"Hell and breakfast, woman, we're talking about fifty years of my life

for this," he said to her. "I can be as intolerable as I damn well please!"

"Very well Professor. I shall wait here for now -if that won't make you

any more dyspeptic than you already are."

Ferguson and Clay weren't long in coming.

"I already heard the news," Ferguson crowed. He was quite happy to be

proven right about the model's fallacies.

"This isn't time to gloat, Ferg," Katy admonished.

"I think I've earned it," Ferguson replied.

"Gloat later," McFogg said sternly. "Right now we need to get back on

track. Have you calculated corrections for the Nerima Event?"

Ferguson nodded. "For what they're worth. I think the best we can

achieve with them is a fifty percent reduction in the error margins. That

still leaves us searching over an area five kilometers square with a window

of plus or minus two days."

"Unacceptable," McFogg said evenly.

"It may be enough for me to localize it," Clay said at length. The

scientist was as maverick as they came; having degrees in history,

archeology, and parapsychology. McFogg had recruited him from a fringe

group searching for ghosts and proof of life after death -typical tabloid

fare, and the Fleet Street press paid well even if most of it was

unsubstantiated bunk. Clay's group had been one of the few that was

actually trying to do legitimate science.

Nevertheless, he was considered a crackpot by most of McFogg's team.

"I can go on ahead if you like and try to pin down likely junctions.

Try to get a 'feel' for the area as it were."

"It might work, but which place do we start?" Katy said. "The model

has three predictions possible, but none of the three are any better than

the other two."

McFogg selected one, although he didn't tell them how he arrived at

his decision. He pointed to it on the large wall map.

"There or nothing," he said to them.

Katy and Ferguson nodded and went off to set up for the next outing.

Clay stayed behind to talk to McFogg.

"You approve?" McFogg asked.

Clay nodded. "Precognition has never been one of my strong suits, but

I feel that would be the best choice."

"Excellent."

Clay worked his hands along the old mahogany table between them. "It's

a pity you can't tell them why you really keep me around."

McFogg finished his cup of tea. "They wouldn't understand. At least

not yet. If they can't quantify it or reproduce it in a lab than it can't

exist. I think Ferguson is only now beginning to appreciate what he's dealing

with, but Katy and the others are still locked in their little prisons of

reason."

"Riemann destroyed Euclid's stranglehold on mathematics," Clay

observed.

"Yes, but it took two-thousand years to get to that point. That and a

mathematical eloquence that denied the opportunity to reproach. We do

not have that eloquence. Nor will we unless we succeed in this endeavor."

Clay nodded. "I feel as if we are being denied a key to this lock.

There has to be something out there that can open the doors for us."

"It's too late to start looking, Clay."

"Perhaps. Perhaps we've found it and just missed it for what it was."

The sounds of birds chirping and the gentle rustle of leaves in the wind

roused Ranma to wakefulness. He slowly opened his eyes. It was morning

again, meaning he had slept all of yesterday afternoon clear through until

the next day.

Akane stirred beside him. She was sprawled out on the futon, an arm

and a leg laying over him. When he tried to sit up she held him down with

her arm and curled up close to him.

Guess I'll just lay here for awhile, he thought idly. He still felt

exhausted, but he had spent the last eighteen hours sleeping like a stone.

No nightmares had plagued him; Doctor Tofu's prognosis was proving correct.

He dozed on and off for a little while, his mind wandering down

countless avenues of thought. How could this have happened to us? What's

it going to take to cure us, or will this just stop in time? Why Akane and

me, and not anybody else? And many variations on those themes.

"Ranma, are you awake?" Akane asked sleepily by his side.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Did you have any nightmares?" She asked.

"No. Did you?"

Akane lifted her head to rest it upon his chest. "Nope. I slept like a

baby." She said with a wan smile.

He yawned. "I was a rock, myself."

"Then it worked," Akane concluded.

"Yup," he affirmed, having made that same conclusion earlier but not

willing to make a point of it. There were some battles you just learned to

avoid.

Akane sat up on the futon and stretched out her arms and back. He

watched her for awhile, admiring her sleepy eyed charm. Suddenly the

thought of waking up to her every morning popped into his head. It wasn't

such a bad notion either.

She caught the sudden change of his expression.

"What is it?" She asked.

Her question jolted him out of his reverie.

"Oh ah, nothin'. I was just spacing out for a minute."

"Well pull yourself together and lets go see about some breakfast. I'm

starving!" she implored.

They went downstairs. Kasumi was reading a magazine while Nabiki

sunbathed on the deck. Mister Tendo was out for a walk, as was his

custom in the morning.

"Well hello, you two!" Kasumi cried happily. "The way you were asleep

for so long, I was beginning to worry."

"I guess we were out for a long time," Akane admitted.

"Doctor Tofu stopped by last night to check on you. He seemed very

happy to see you asleep. He also asked me to tell you that he hasn't found

any answers yet, but that he has talked to a colleague of his about your

problem."

"What problem would that be?" Nabiki asked from the deck.

"Oh. Didn't you hear?" Kasumi asked her.

"Hear what?"

"Ranma and Akane have to stay together at all times. Especially when

they sleep."

"What was that?"

Ranma and Akane began to turn red.

"That's what Doctor Tofu told me," Kasumi replied. "It sounds silly,

but he is the doctor."

"It sounds more like one of daddy's match-making schemes," Nabiki

remarked. "You'd think he would have learned his lesson by now."

Ranma and Akane slipped away into the kitchen.

Later, after they had consumed a breakfast big enough for four people,

they sat on the deck deep in thought.

"I wonder if all this has something to do with that screwy science

experiment last week?" Akane asked aloud. The thought had been making

the rounds in her head all morning.

"I was kinda thinking the same," Ranma replied.

"But how would it happen? I mean, all I felt was a gust of wind." She

said.

"With all of those sensors in the lot, who knows what they were really

detecting?"

"I bet those scientists might know what happened," she opined. "They

might even know how to help us."

Ranma sighed. "Yeah, but how are we going to find them again? They

left the country the next day.

Akane clubbed him on the head with her fist. "You are such a

blockhead!" She cried.

"What?!"

"Didn't Hiro give you his card? It had a phone number on it, right?"

Ranma nodded slowly. "Yeah... Some kind of answering service, um,

voice mail I think."

"Then call him and tell him our problem. He's your friend so he'll

help, right?"

"Yeah sure. I mean I guess so."

"That's really strange," Ukyo said when they had told her of the

Doctor's prognosis.

"It doesn't make much sense, but so far he's been right," Ranma said.

Ukyo regarded the two of them sitting side by side.

"Well, you both look much better than you did yesterday. Any ideas on

how it happened?"

Ranma shrugged, "Well we think it might have something to do with

that science experiment last week. You remember all those white boxes?"

A patron in the corner of the shop looked up at the two sitting at the

counter.

Ukyo smiled, "I remember all the nice scientists who ate lunch here

every day." Yen signs flashed in her eyes.

"Well those nice scientists are probably the ones who knocked our

ki's out of whack," Ranma added.

"What are you planning to do about it?"

Akane fielded this one. "We sent a message to Ranma's friend Hiro. He

works for these scientists, and hopefully he'll tell them what's happening

to us."

Ukyo raised an eyebrow in thought. "Hiro...?"

"My old army buddy," Ranma supplied.

Ukyo's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Last Christmas!" She remembered it well,

her tearful confession to Akane that Ranma had returned to combat in Korea.

They thought he was killed in the final offensive that ended the war, only

to have him and Ryoga and Hiro come home not minutes after she told Akane

that she had known about him going back to fight.

"He was a nice guy, but a little crazy," she observed.

"With luck those guys he works for will believe him," Ranma said.

"So what will you do in the meantime?"

"I can't really teach classes like this," Ranma said glumly. "I'm so out

of focus right now I'd look ridiculous in a fight."

Ukyo frowned. "I thought you said you were okay if you had Akane

close by?"

Ranma smirked. "What? You think I can fight with her always hanging

on?"

Akane socked him across the jaw. He flew off his stool and landed face

first on Ukyo's freshly mopped floor.

"Well excuuuse me for being in the way!"

Ukyo chuckled. "I see Akane has no problems with focus."

"That's because she's a master at being uncute; no focus required,"

Ranma lamented from the floor.

The man in the corner left a pile of yen on the table and slipped out.

Ukyo's eyes registered the money on the table and judged that it was too

much for what he'd ordered. He wasn't one of her regulars so she didn't

pay it much mind. Konatsu flitted over to collect it. Ranma meanwhile was

waggling his tongue at Akane.

"Keep it up, Ranma!" Akane yelled. She lifted him up and prepared to

heave him through the air.

"Hey! Hey! The windows aren't paid for yet!" Ukyo cried.

Akane set him down on the stool and smiled apologetically to Ukyo.

"See what I mean," he said under his breath.

"Looks like you both will just have to get used to this. Either that

or you kill each other." Ukyo said off-handedly.

"That might not be far off," Akane menaced.

"Go ahead and kill me," Ranma taunted. "And see how much sleep you

get then."

"Oh I won't kill you; just hurt you enough to make you wish you were

dead," Akane shot back.

"How long do you think it'll take for a reply?" Ukyo asked. She had the

feeling that it couldn't be soon enough.

They had been grating on each other's nerves all day. It was one thing to

be close and affectionate when you wanted to be, but having to keep close

all the time was a little fraying. The effect was having it's toll on their

patience.

They walked in the front door arguing loudly. It wasn't even an argument

anymore, just yelling and gainsaying louder than the other could.

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

"Wasn't!"

"WAS!"

"WASN'T!"

Kasumi asked them nicely if they could keep their voices down. They

ignored her and raised the ante an octave. Visibly flustered, Kasumi returned

to the kitchen.

"SHUT UP!"

"YOU SHUT UP!"

Kasumi appeared again, this time armed with a skillet. They never saw

it coming.

CLANNGG!!!

KLONNGG!!!

Both dropped like empty sacks of rice. Peace returned to the Tendo

home for a short time.

Satisfied with her handiwork, she returned to the kitchen. Before

disappearing around the corner she told them:

"Dinner will be ready shortly. You should probably wash up now."

Ranma tried to lift his head off the floor.

"Medic..." he croaked hoarsely.

Three days passed at an agonizing gait. Ranma and Akane had since

stopped speaking to each other. They kept their backs to the other

whenever possible. Their sleeping arrangements consisted of sleeping back

to back on Ranma's futon. An invisible 'line of death' existed between

them then, a gap of about six inches. Any farther apart and the nightmares

returned.

It was hard for them, but it was even harder to watch. What had seemed

to Mister Tendo that his youngest daughter and the son of his best friend

were finally going to be married was falling apart before his eyes. Kasumi

was not her usual cheery self either, the effect was wearing off on her as

well. Mister Tendo noticed as much as he watched his eldest daughter dust

the family shrine. She had none of the usual zeal today. For once it

seemed like a chore.

"What's the matter, Kasumi?" he asked at length.

Kasumi sighed. "Oh nothing, Father."

"You just seem out of sorts," Tendo observed. "Are you feeling well?"

Kasumi set down her feather duster.

"I'm just a little worried about Akane and Ranma. They've been really

close since Christmas and now they can't stand the sight of each other."

Tendo nodded knowingly.

"Doctor Tofu will find a way to help them," he soothed. "Don't you

worry."

Kasumi looked down at her feet. "I've been helping Doctor Tofu search

through the medical journals and through all of his old family writings. We

haven't found anything that comes close to this."

"Well don't give up hope yet!" Tendo advised with a half hearted smile.

There was a knock at the gate. Kasumi collected herself with another

sigh and went outside to answer it.

It was a FEDEX deliveryman. He had a small box emblazoned with

words like URGENT and PRIORITY in several languages. It was addressed

to Ranma Saotome.

Kasumi explained that Ranma lived at the house, but was not home. The

man consulted a notepad that informed him that he was to leave the box with

whomever was home. Satisfied that all was in order, the deliveryman handed

her the box and had her sign a clipboard. He bowed for her and took off in

his little white and blue minivan.

"What is it, Kasumi?" Tendo asked.

"It's a package for Ranma," Kasumi explained. She consulted a few of

the labels. "I'm not quite sure, but I think this came from England."

"Well open it," Tendo said.

"Father, this isn't ours to open!" Kasumi protested.

Tendo harrumphed. "Mmm... Perhaps you're right. I guess we can just

set it on the table until Ranma gets home."

Ranma and Akane came home in time for dinner. Both had been

running to release pent up energy without having to resort to violence.

Kasumi's surprise skillet attack had at least kept them from each other's

throats, if only out of the self-preservation instinct.

They came in through the backyard soaked in sweat. Kasumi shooed

them upstairs to get cleaned up for dinner. Ranma waited outside the

bathroom while Akane bathed. Then she would take up her station while

Ranma did the same. It was becoming a tiresome ritual, and even more so

because they weren't speaking to each other.

When they came downstairs Ranma noticed the package.

"Hey what's this?" He asked. He picked up the box and studied it.

"Put that down for now, Ranma," Kasumi advised. "It's time for dinner."

Ranma decided that he didn't need two of the Tendo sisters on his bad

side, and set down the box. He took his place beside Akane at the table,

but as far as either was concerned, the other may have been in Bahrain.

The meal was typical Kasumi, meaning it was absolutely delicious.

Unfortunately good company makes for good meals, and tonight there

was none to be found.

If there was a positive note to their dinner, it was that both Akane

and Ranma refrained from making snide comments about eating habits, table

manners, someone's figure, and so forth. But that was only because they

weren't speaking to each other. Not that Nabiki, Kasumi and Mister Tendo

didn't try to make for good conversation, it was just that their hearts

weren't in it any more than Ranma and Akane's were. In other words it

was more like a last meal on Death Row.

When Ranma finished, he cleared his dishes and excused himself. Then

he proceeded to tear open the box addressed to him. All eyes in the room

were upon the box as he opened it.

"Hey what's all this stuff?" He exclaimed.

He dumped the box onto the floor.

What spilled out were:

Two black leather cased Japanese Passports.

Two Japanese Diplomatic Visas.

Two pre-paid First Class boarding passes on Japan Air Lines to Los

Angeles via Honolulu. Redeemable at any time with guaranteed passage.

Two pre-paid First Class boarding passes on British Airways to London

from Los Angeles. Also redeemable at any time with guaranteed passage.

A large manila envelope with approximately 500,000 yen, 1000 British

Pounds, and 1000 dollars in American Express travelers cheques. All in

large denominations.

A Platinum Diner's Club card on a corporate account.

A handwritten note in Hiro's scrawl.

Ranma scooped up the note and read it aloud.

"Hey Saotome, I received your voice mail message. It was pretty weird,

but I knew you wouldn't tell me something like this if it wasn't on the level.

I relayed it to the Professor.

"They think they can help you and Akane, but you'll need to meet us in

London. I've taken care of all of your travel arrangements, passports and

the like. I also included enough spending money for your stay in London.

Don't worry about your accommodations, that's been taken care of as well.

Just get on the next flight out of Tokyo, and I'll be seeing you in London.

Your Friend,

Hiro

P.S. Use the Diplomatic Visas and you'll skate through Customs in the

U.S. with no problems. Use the yen I sent to buy some really expensive

clothes, gotta look the part and all!"

"What in the world?" Akane cried.

"It appears you have some travel in your future," Kasumi remarked.

Nabiki examined the passports. "This is quality stuff. It has to be

fake though, there's no way he could get passports for you on such short

notice. And the Diplomatic Visas? I had no idea your friend was so

connected."

"I didn't either," Ranma replied.

Akane took a passport from Nabiki. "Hey! Where did he get a picture

of me?" A photograph of her was neatly embossed on the inside of the

passport.

Ranma held up the other one to reveal a photo of himself. "Ditto."

Nabiki held up the envelope containing the money. "Well connected,

and well heeled. Perhaps I misjudged him last time we met."

"It's the scientists he works for that have all the money," Ranma

replied.

"Well he's on the inside, it works out to the same thing," Nabiki

amended.

"You aren't planning on leaving tonight are you?" Kasumi asked Ranma.

Ranma blinked twice. The whole idea of flying around the world hadn't

quite sunk in just yet.

"Uh... Of course not," he replied after a minute's pause. Akane wasn't

helping him with any fast answers, the ball was entirely in his court.

"Exactly," Nabiki concurred. "We still have to go shopping for this

little jaunt, right?" She looked right at Ranma as she said this.

"Huh? What's this 'we' stuff?" he asked suspiciously.

Nabiki frowned. "Don't even pretend that you have any fashion sense,

Saotome. If you want to look like the Jet-Set, you have to dress like the

Jet-Set. That's where I come in."

"Uh, how much is this gonna set me back?" Ranma gulped.

Nabiki's eyes gleamed. "Fear not, my dear Ranma, I believe Hiro Ohata

and his associates will be picking up the tab." She held the 500,000 yen

before his eyes. He had never seen so much money in one place.

She struck a contemplative pose. "Hmm, too bad we don't have the

time for a jaunt to Hong Kong. The new Fall lines will be coming out soon.

I think hand-tailored silk would suit you. Ah well, we'll see what we can

do."

Late that evening Ranma and Akane went upstairs to bed. Their

hostilities had dwindled somewhat with new hope. The thought of leaving

Japan for England also weighed heavily on their minds. There just wasn't

room enough for grudges.

Akane entered Ranma's room wearing her yellow cat pajamas. He

looked her over and wished just once that she'd choose to wear that little

nightshirt he'd seen her in that early morning over a week ago. Pig-headed

intemperate violent impulsed woman that she was, she was still cute.

Okay, more like beautiful, he thought wistfully.

If she caught his brief hungry look she made no sign of it. Instead she

settled down next to him at their agreed upon distance of six inches apart.

It wasn't much of a gap, but the fact that she hadn't come any closer told

him that she was still angry with him.

Still, he could feel her breath softly against the back of his neck,

which also told him that she wasn't turning her back to him either. She was

putting out mixed signals. He had no idea what her intentions were,

and decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valor. He closed

his eyes and concentrated on going to sleep.

Not that it did him any good. Not that it had done any good the

previous three nights when they'd scowled at each other and made a big

deal of ignoring the other. She was still right there, so close, lying right

next to him. He would lay there and think about what might happen if

they should touch -just by accident mind you. Of what might happen if

she didn't immediately punt him out the window and into the pond in

the backyard. They were just thoughts; he didn't try anything like that,

and she didn't either. But it was thoughts like these that made the night

seem very long and sleep a nebulous foe that wasn't soon caught.

He wished he hadn't been so exhausted that first night they'd spent

together. They had been so intimate then. Her arm around him, his hand

in hers. It wasn't a big deal for most people their age, but for someone

like him, for whom the fairer gender was always a bigger mystery than for

most, it was everything.

"Ranma?" Akane asked softly.

"Hurm?" he murmured, trying to sound like he was almost asleep;

which was an unabashed lie.

"Are we going to leave for London tomorrow?"

He was quiet a moment before speaking, and he could hear her drawing

breath to repeat her question.

"I guess so," he replied. "Tomorrow night."

"We couldn't wait on that?" She asked. There was something wrong in

her tone, but he wasn't sure what.

"I guess we could, but that would just mean we'd have to keep this up

longer," he replied. "Why? What's the matter with tomorrow night?"

She touched his shoulder then, sending an electric jolt down his nerves.

He jumped a little at the touch, and suddenly blushed at being caught in such

a reaction. She was prompting him to turn around and face her.

He did so. Her eyes shone in the moonlight through the window.

"I'm just a little nervous about leaving home I guess," she said sadly.

"You lived away from home at college," he returned.

"I was still in Tokyo. Home was an hour train ride away. This is a lot

different."

"You won't be alone, Akane. Even if we aren't getting along so good

right now, you'll still have me to kick around."

She laughed a little in appreciation for his attempt at humor.

"I guess so," she admitted.

"Besides, didn't you tell me not too long ago that you would always be

with me, no matter how far apart we were?"

She remembered that winter's night well. It was his first night home

from the war. They hadn't seen each other in six months; she was at college,

and he was dodging artillery fire and bullets on some nameless blackened

hill.

"I remember," she said in a hushed tone.

"And didn't you also tell me that you weren't letting me out of your

sight again?"

This she had told him upon his second return from the war. When he

had slipped away from his easy duty in Yokosuka awaiting discharge to go

back to Korea as part of some secret commando raid against North Korean

missile sites at Keumjonri.

"Yeah, I told you that," she admitted.

"Well I'm going to London tomorrow. We're going to London tomorrow.

To find a cure for this whatever it is. So we can have a semi-normal life

again."

She closed her eyes in contemplation.

"Okay," she said at length. "Tomorrow night. But late tomorrow night."

"Fair enough," he replied.

They were quiet for some time then. The only sounds were the crickets

outside and the soft breaths they took in the darkness.

"Akane?" Ranma asked. He wasn't sure if she had fallen asleep.

"Yes?" She answered.

"Truce?"

She moved close and curled her arms around him. Her lips touched his

very briefly before she nuzzled against his chest to sleep.

"Truce," she replied from the shelter of his strong arms.

Chapter Four

That Ryoga Hibiki was lost was such a hopelessly regular occurrence

as to be cliche. That didn't change the fact that it was all too true. He

struggled on through the jungle, with no idea where he was, and the sinking

feeling that he was wandering in circles again.

That sinking feeling hit him in spades when he saw that he was walking

in circles again. He had passed this same crashed airplane twice today. He

knew it couldn't be a different plane, because the same skeletal body of its

pilot lay halfway out of the cockpit window wearing the same faded floral

pattern shirt. The jungle had long since overgrown the wreck.

He was feeling pretty depressed, and just a little tired of all of this.

He sat down next to the wreckage of the plane and thought long and hard about

where he could possibly be. He hadn't heard Chinese in a very long time, not

since winter, and so he gathered that he was no longer in China anymore.

He was positive that he had crossed no large bodies of water. Positive!

That had to put him in Asia. The locals he had seen had dark skin and black

hair. They spoke a language altogether unfamiliar to him. Where did that put

him?

India, maybe?

It was a thought. India was close to China as far as he remembered.

He heard a rustling through the jungle nearby. He looked up to see

three small boys looking at him. It was a look he was used to: locals

staring at the stranger. He was too tired and homesick to care.

The boys took another look at him. He wore camouflage pattern trousers

and combat boots that had seen a lot of marching by the look of the worn

soles. He wore a dingy tank top because wherever this place was, it was

sure hot and humid! A yellow and black headband completed the ensemble.

It was when they saw his traveling pack that the children freaked.

"El Paraguo Rojo!" the oldest of them cried, pointing to the red

bamboo umbrella Ryoga carried with him, and then to Ryoga himself.

"El Javelino!!" the other two cried in unison. The three ran away as

fast as they could into the jungle.

Ryoga watched them go. He didn't think Indian children would be so

rude. He wished that he had spent enough time in one place to pick up a

little of the language. As it stood he knew enough to ask for work to pay

for his food and shelter, please and thank-you; politeness kinds of words.

Nothing substantial.

He sighed and went to sleep. Perhaps he'd figure it out over a nap.

A voice woke him. He opened his eyes to see a man squatting down on his

haunches looking at him. He wore faded jeans, soft knee high buckskin boots,

and a tie-dyed Grateful Dead T-shirt. The man had a golden complexion to his

skin -not just a healthy tan, but a faint metallic shimmer to it when the

errant ray of sunshine poked through the jungle canopy to strike it.

"Perhaps you'd be more comfortable in a bed?" the man asked him. It

sounded like Japanese, but Ryoga noticed that his mouth wasn't moving

correctly for the sounds he was making. Watching him speak was like watching

a badly dubbed movie.

He seemed friendly, and Ryoga was so lonely at this point he was dying

for the chance to talk to someone. Perhaps this stranger could tell him where

he was. Instead the man said to him:

"You look like you could use a good meal as well. Come. Follow me and I

shall see that you get both."

"Both?" Ryoga asked. He was still a little groggy when the man first

spoke to him.

"A bed and a meal," the man supplied. "It isn't far."

Ryoga had nothing better to do, so he followed him.

End of Part Two


	3. Chapter 3

J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

CHASING THE WIND

Part Three: Far From Home

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man,

Fission Park 1/2 is the creation and

Property of Rumiko Takahashi and

Shogakukan/KITTY TV/VIZ.

Synopsis:

A group of scientists visit Nerima to study a 'magnetic disturbance.'

Ranma and Akane are caught in the middle of the 'disturbance' as it arrives

several days earlier than predicted. There are no immediate effects, and

the scientists leave Japan to continue their work.

Ranma and Akane begin experiencing nightmares. To their horror they

learn that they are actually sharing their nightmares. This progresses to

the point where neither can get any sleep. Akane believes Shampoo is

responsible, and confronts her in the Cat Cafe. Shampoo professes her

innocence, and Ranma takes Akane to see Doctor Tofu about their problem.

Doctor Tofu examines them and discovers that something has skewed

their 'ki' in opposite respects to each other. Until a cure can be found,

Ranma and Akane must stay close to each at all times or the nightmares

will continue, and they will become very ill. They conclude that the 'event'

they were part of may be responsible. Ranma calls on his friend from the

War, Hiro Ohata, for help. Hiro is working for the scientists as a kind

of Man Friday.

Hiro replies to their plea by sending them passports, plane tickets,

and a sum of money to come to London, England.

Chapter One

"You're leaving the country?"

Ukyo couldn't have looked more surprised than she did now.

Ranma didn't blame her. He hardly believed it himself.

"We don't have much choice," he remarked.

Akane nodded in agreement.

"Why can't they just come back to Japan? I mean if they are

the ones responsible for this, they should be the ones going to all the

trouble," Ukyo protested.

"This whole thing is probably just some kind of freak accident,"

Ranma replied. "And they are going to a lot of trouble. They're

paying all of our expenses to travel to England."

"So when are you leaving?" Ukyo asked.

"Tonight," Ranma answered. "We catch our flight at nine o'clock."

"Tonight?"

"We still need to get ready, otherwise we would have left this

morning." Akane added.

"Nabiki's taking us shopping," Ranma finished.

"I'm not even going to ask about that," Ukyo said.

"We're kind of late as it is," Akane observed. "But we just wanted

to tell you what was happening."

Ranma reached into his pocket. He withdrew Hiro's personal card

and gave it to Ukyo.

"If you really need to reach us, this is Hiro's voice mail number.

And we'll call you when we get to England, don't worry."

Ukyo took both of their hands in hers. "You two have a safe trip.

Take care of yourselves."

"We'll be all right," Akane assured.

They left the okonomiyaki shop. Ukyo shook her head and wiped

down the counter for lack of anything better to do. The lunch crowd

wasn't due for another hour.

Of course I'm going to worry about you two, she thought sadly.

Ranma and Akane weren't a block from Ucchan's before running

into Shampoo and Mousse. The two were carrying a prodigious order

of takeout to the Mitsuhamas; whose appetites were legendary.

Shampoo waved cheerfully from behind her pile of takeout boxes.

"Nihao, Ranma! Nihao, Akane! You look much better today!"

Ranma waved back. Even Akane was civil to her erstwhile rival,

and smiled in return.

"Where you going this morning?" she asked them.

"We've gotta lotta stuff to do," Ranma started.

"And we're kind of late," Akane finished.

Undaunted, Shampoo bounced along past them. "Okay now. I see

you later perhaps?"

"Maybe," Ranma replied cheerfully. He wasn't sure if he should

tell her what their plans really entailed.

"Okay. Have good day!"

Mousse tried to wave his hand as he struggled beneath the lion's

share of the load.

" They seem to be all right today, " Shampoo observed in Chinese.

" I guess so. I really can't see them underneath all this food, "

Mousse answered.

Nabiki was a little cross with them when they returned home.

"You could have told me you were going to visit Ukyo. We could

have cabbed over there and then got on our way."

"We just wanted to walk around the neighborhood once before

we left," Akane replied.

"You make it sound like you're never coming back," Nabiki

remarked.

"Who knows how long this is going to take?" Ranma asked in

defense of Akane.

"Oh, it doesn't matter now I suppose. Come on, let's get going."

"They received the invitation Professor," Hiro announced as he

came into the study with a silver tea service and two china cups.

He set the tray down on a table between them. He carefully poured

two cups of tea for them, splashing just a little milk and a lump of

sugar into McFogg's cup.

"Splendid," McFogg said as he sipped the tea.

Hiro sat down across from the Professor and sipped from his

own cup. "Do you really think they can help us?"

McFogg nodded. "Mister Clay seems to think so. I am inclined to

believe Mister Clay." He picked up a finger sandwich from the tray

and ate it in one bite.

"Hmm... Hiro, you've mastered the secret of the cucumber

sandwich."

"Thanks, Professor," Hiro replied. He returned to the thought

that was utmost in his mind. "Do you think we can help them?"

McFogg nodded again. "I don't see why not."

"That's good. Saotome's a good friend, and the way he sounded

on my voice mail message, he seemed like he was in pretty dire

straits. He wouldn't have called if it wasn't important."

McFogg ate another sandwich and patted Hiro's arm. "Fear not,

Mister Ohata. Your friends will be fine. By the by, how did you come

to know this Mister Saotome and his fianc饿"

"He and I were in the same platoon in Korea. We went through

a lot of action together. I met Akane-chan when I came over to visit."

McFogg nodded and drew his pipe from his waistcoat. The dismantling

of the former North Korea's war machine continued as American and South

Korean forces maintained the peace. UN Inspectors uncovered more and

more of the former communist country's nuclear weapons program every day.

"Ah yes. You and he were in Operation Chancellor together?"

"Yep. He and I and this other guy named Hibiki. We were the only

ones to make it out of our team."

"Then I am to assume that your friend Saotome is quite resourceful?"

"Sure is."

"And his fianc饿"

Hiro thought a moment about Akane. He really didn't know her

that well. "She's a... What's that word? ...Spitfire... She's a real

spitfire. They're perfect for each other."

"That's a good thing then. This might not be easy for them."

"Well?" Ranma asked.

Nabiki and Akane looked him over thoroughly. Both women smiled

with satisfaction at what they beheld.

"If you looked any sharper, they'd have to wrap you up in a sword

sheath," Nabiki said proudly.

Ranma was wearing a charcoal colored cashmere suit from Hong

Kong with white silk shirt and wine colored silk tie also from Hong

Kong. Wine suspenders added another flash of color, and his black

leather Italian shoes gleamed in the soft light of the Ginza boutique.

Nabiki fluffed at his pigtail, eyeing it from several angles.

"I was a bit worried about the pigtail, but no, it suits you even

in a suit."

Ranma shrugged. "Whatever you say."

He looked at Akane. "What do you think?"

Akane looked him over again. He looks so handsome! I think I

liked him in his uniform better, but oh wow!

"You look good," she said evenly.

Nabiki brushed at his lapel. "Don't mind her, I don't think she's

being entirely honest with you anyway." She winked at Akane.

Ranma scratched the top of his head. "I hope so, how much is this

going to cost?"

Nabiki dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Better that you

didn't know. In any case you can't afford to make a habit of dressing

like this every day."

The tailor returned with several swatches of material. Nabiki picked

out several colors and patterns and the tailor returned to the back of

the shop. A second tailor appeared and took some alteration

measurements, pinning them in place on the clothing.

"We can have this ready for you in an hour Miss Tendo," the tailor

announced.

"No need to rush on our account," Nabiki offered. "We'll be shopping

for some time to come."

The tailor carefully removed the suit coat as an assistant directed

Ranma back to the dressing room to collect the remainder.

"As you wish, Miss Tendo."

Ranma returned dressed in his usual red Chinese shirt and black

trousers.

"Whew, I never thought I'd get out of that stuff," he remarked.

"Now what?"

Nabiki smiled. "Well... Since we have to wait on the alterations, I

thought we should take care of your fianc饠next."

"Wait on the alterations? I thought you said I looked good as I was?"

Nabiki clucked disparagingly, "My dear Ranma, those alterations

will only bring out that stunning physique of yours. Remember: If you

have it, flaunt it! Now shall we see to Akane?"

Ranma sighed and followed them out of the boutique. Little did he

realize the true horror he was getting himself into.

I shoulda known... he thought sadly. He had been waiting for

two hours, and they hadn't gotten as far as deciding on a pair of shoes

yet! Women...!

"What do you think?" Akane asked him for about the thousandth

time.

Like I have any clue about women's fashions, he thought

bitterly. It's not like they're gonna listen to me anyway.

"It looks great," he answered for about the thousandth time.

"You really think so?" Akane asked. "I mean the color isn't quite

what I was looking for." She held up a dress with the shoes. "I mean

I like them, but they don't quite go with this dress."

"You haven't even decided on the dress yet, so how can you knock

the shoes?" Ranma replied. His thin veneer of patience was starting to

wear thinner.

Akane was oblivious to his question. Nabiki had just shown her this

dress that was so darling!

Ranma just buried his face in his hands and tried to endure it all.

Ranma had forgotten how much he hated good-byes. His parents

were there making a fuss over him, Mister Tendo was carrying on, it

was just too much to deal with. He just wanted to get on the plane and

get this over with. The faster they were cured, the faster they could

return home.

Kasumi had been especially sweet in getting their clothes and sundries

ready and packed. Nabiki had found them a bargain on a good looking

set of luggage. He supposed carrying his kit bag would have looked a

little out of place with the suit.

At last the family said their good-byes and Nabiki packed them into

a taxi to take them on the long ride to Narita International Airport.

Akane was already showing a little fatigue, and lay her head upon his

shoulder.

When they arrived he paid the cabbie in cash, nearly the last of the

yen Hiro had sent. They wouldn't be in Japan for much longer anyway.

Akane had their boarding passes and checked their luggage, leaving him

to puzzle his way through a map of the massive Narita complex to find

their terminal and gate.

He was still puzzling this when Akane came up from behind, pointed

directly to the desired gate, and dragged him away by the sleeve.

"I can't imagine how you ever made it in the army when you can't

even read a map," she scolded. "You'd think you were Ryoga or

something."

He bit back a rebuttal, deciding that he'd get even later. She was

bound to screw up sooner or later.

When they reached their gate, they were just boarding the First

Class passengers. Ranma followed Akane down the jet way as the

roar of departing flights thundered in the night. It reminded him of

fighters on bombing runs. He found himself waiting for the flash and

howl of SAMs to rise in challenge.

"What is it?" Akane asked.

Ranma returned to reality. "Nothing," he replied idly. Gonna take

awhile I guess.

They found their seats and stowed their few carry-ons. Akane had

a portable CD player in her purse, and she put the headphones on.

Not another Zard album! Ranma thought in horror. It's

gonna be a long flight...

Somewhere aft came the bustle of the Business and Coach Class

passengers boarding. A flight attendant thoughtfully drew the curtains

that separated First Class from the rest of the aircraft. The lights

shifted, indicating that the Boeing 747 was starting its four turbofan

engines.

The engines howled up to idle speed, barely a dull whine from the

quiet of the forward part of the cabin. He could feel them through the

deck. He could also feel the ground crew slamming the cargo doors

shut and the sounds of the hydraulic plant cycling the control surfaces

in preflight.

The lights shifted again, they were on internal power now. A flight

attendant took up her station for the preflight safety brief. Flying made

him a little nervous, and he found he was rapt with attention. Akane

was reading one of the in-flight magazines.

The JAL 747 taxied to the active runway, waiting its turn in the

queue as other jets roared off into the night. Ranma checked his seat

belt fastened again. Akane was now asleep beside him, her headphones

had fallen down around her neck.

The engines spun up to full power, and the 747 began to pick up

speed. They seemed to hang there not quite on the ground and not

quite in the air for what seemed an eternity, and for that eternity of

three seconds Ranma was sure they weren't going to make it. Despite

his doomsaying, the jetliner surged aloft, climbing higher and turning

out towards the sea as the flaps retracted with servomotor whines.

He looked out the window to the blaze of lights that was Tokyo.

He had no idea where Nerima was in all of that yellow and white light,

only that it was down there somewhere. The JAL 747 adjusted course,

still climbing to cruise altitude, and headed west over the Pacific

Ocean.

Chapter Two

Of all the people Ukyo expected to see coming into her shop just

before closing time, she was sure Tatewaki Kuno wasn't one of them.

The swordsman had Nabiki Tendo in tow, although knowing Nabiki it

was tough to determine who was towing whom. The kendoist began

to take a seat at a booth, but Nabiki collared him and brought him to

the counter.

"Hey, Ukyo!" Nabiki greeted.

Ukyo smiled at the way she handled Kuno. "Good evening, Nabiki.

What can I get for you?"

Nabiki looked at Kuno, who had that shell-shocked look that he

affected whenever he dealt with Nabiki on uneven terms, which was

most of the time. She looked back to Ukyo and smiled.

"Two of your super deluxe with absolutely everything and a couple

cokes."

Ukyo poured out the batter and set to work, spatulas flying.

"Tell me again why we must take our victuals in this establishment

when I so generously offered a locale more, shall we say, upscale?"

Kuno asked in his flowery manner of speaking.

Ukyo ignored the slight for Nabiki's sake.

"Is there a problem with Ucchan's?" Nabiki asked innocently.

Kuno caught the glint of heat death in Ukyo's eyes, and chose his

words carefully.

"Not at all," he began. Ukyo appeared to calm slightly. "It merely

strikes me as peculiar that you would not take advantage of my

generosity -as you have so often in times past."

Nabiki scoffed. "Nonsense, Kuno-baby. You are a prince among

men; it would have been ungracious of me to refuse such generosity."

Kuno thought about this for a minute.

"Then why, pray tell, are you doing it now?"

Nabiki gave him a look she reserved for the purely simple-minded.

"Oh, the things I do for you, Kuno-baby!" she lamented. "You asked

me where you could find your precious Pig-Tailed Girl tonight. I

take you to the place she likes to frequent, and now you insult me!"

Ukyo clucked disapprovingly.

Kuno's face reddened in shame.

"Forgive me, Nabiki Tendo," he implored. "I had no idea that my

Lovely Goddess blessed this establishment with her presence!"

Nabiki twisted the knife. "I'm sure you could make it up to me,"

she said, leaving her statement open-ended.

Kuno sighed tiredly. "Yes, Nabiki Tendo?" He tensed for the blow.

"Well, there is this all night ice cream shoppe a few blocks from

here. They make the best milk shakes."

"They sure do," Ukyo added. Seeing Kuno squirm was redress

enough for his earlier unflattering remark.

"Very well," he said. Ukyo placed his okonomiyaki smartly before

him, and he began to eat with little vigor.

Nabiki on the other hand ate with abandon. The best okonomiyaki

was the kind someone else paid for.

Ukyo finished wiping down the counter and the floors as Nabiki

and Kuno ate. Nabiki carried on a chatty conversation with Ukyo as

she worked to close up. Kuno sat stoically and finished his now cold

okonomiyaki.

"I finally took the plunge," Ukyo said happily.

"Oh yeah?" Nabiki asked.

"Yup. I'm going on vacation!"

Nabiki gave her a puzzled look. "Who's going to run the shop?

Konatsu?"

Ukyo flashed her a 'V' with her fingers. "Yup. It didn't take much

sweet talking. The hard part was getting him to promise not to tag along.

He's come a long way since he first started working here, so I'm not

too worried. I've needed some time off by myself for so long now, it'll

be good to get away."

"So where is Konatsu right now?"

"I sent him to the bank with the day's deposits."

Nabiki nodded. Any criminals intending on robbing the kunoichi

would be in for a big surprise.

"So where are you going on this vacation?" she asked.

"Guam!" Ukyo replied. "I know it's not Hawaii, but the beach around

here is getting old, and I really didn't feel like going to Okinawa. I

just wanted to get away from Japan for awhile. I'm going to take scuba

diving lessons while I'm there."

Nabiki nodded approvingly, "I've heard there's lots of good diving

spots there. But where did you get the money to afford a trip like that?

I thought you were saving up to go to school?"

Ukyo smiled. "You know those scientists that were here, the ones

that messed up Akane and Ranma...?"

Kuno's ears perked up at this.

"Well they must not have known how much money they were throwing

around, because they kept leaving a lot more than they owed on the tables,

and they ate here every day! We're talking an extra two weeks of business

for nothing! It won't take much from my savings to make up the difference,

and with Konatsu running the place while I'm gone I won't be losing any

business."

Nabiki thought about that. "Yeah, that sounds like them all right,"

she said, thinking about the ridiculous sum of money Hiro had sent Ranma.

Very well heeled indeed.

Kuno decided to interject.

"What did you say pertaining to Saotome and the sweet Akane Tendo?"

he asked Ukyo.

Ukyo flashed a look to Nabiki. Nabiki shrugged in reply.

"You mean you didn't hear?" She asked him.

"Little in the way of knowledge doth slip through my grasp fair

Ukyo, but in truth this minutiae did. I implore you, what sayeth you?"

"Well I'm only getting this second hand, but I guess some westerners

were conducting a science experiment in the neighborhood, and Ranma

and Akane got caught up in the middle of it. Their ki has been 'thrown

out of whack' to hear Ranma tell it. Now they have all sorts of

nightmares. They just flew to England tonight to see if there was a

cure for their problem."

Kuno looked to Nabiki for confirmation.

"That about sums it up, Kuno-baby. I put them on a plane about two

hours ago."

"Their lives are not in danger, are they?" he asked.

Nabiki was starting to feel puzzled. What does old Kuno-baby

care about Ranma?

"I'm not sure, it's possible I guess."

Kuno lifted his handsome face to the heavens, as if some epiphany

would suddenly descend upon him.

"Oh curse you, Saotome!" he cried. "Thou hast fled from me in thy

hour of need, heedless of my oath! Dost thou wish to make mockery of my

just debt?! Curse you and curse me for my tardiness to these affairs!"

"Huh?" Nabiki and Ukyo said in unison.

He took hold of Nabiki's hand and dragged her toward the door.

"What the hell's going on, Kuno?" Nabiki yelled.

"Haste! Make haste!" Kuno cried. "To England's fair shores, the

White Cliffs of Dover beckon! Onward we speed into the night on this;

Duty's Errand and Honor's Right!"

They made it as far as the door when two men walked in.

"I'm terribly sorry, but we're closed for the evening!" Ukyo called

to them.

The two raised small clear poly bottles and jetted lines of a watery

liquid into Kuno and Nabiki's eyes. Both spluttered cries of surprise

and dropped like stones to the floor, twitching for a few seconds before

lying still.

Ukyo didn't like the looks of this one bit. Her huge spatula was

drawn in her hand and ready at high guard.

"I don't know who you clowns are, but that was a big mistake!" she

cried.

They casually jetted more of the liquid at her. She used her giant

spatula as a shield, jumping over the counter to attack them. A brace

of smaller spatulas rippled from her free hand, pinning one of the two

to the wall. She was just raising her giant spatula to swat the other down

when the liquid flecked upon it dribbled down over her bare skin.

The effects were nearly immediate. She felt an icy sensation run

down her arm, numbing and paralyzing. The ice quickly reached her

heart and she swooned to her knees. The man looked at her passively,

waiting for her to fall. It was then that she noticed the white surgical

gloves each man wore.

She fell at his feet. Her spatula clattered uselessly beside her. Her

long fall of dark brown hair covered her face, billowing slightly with

her deep even breaths.

A third man walked in. He was a giant of a man, towering over six

and a half feet tall. Thick curly black hair was piled atop a bullet

shaped head that seemed to protrude directly from his linebacker's

shoulders without the trivialities of a neck.

" This one seems to have given you trouble, Misha, " he observed,

gesturing to the fallen Ukyo.

" There was no trouble. " The one standing before Ukyo replied.

The big man pointed to the second man, who was pulling himself

free of Ukyo's spatulas. " I think Dmitri Grigoryvich may contest that, "

he observed dryly. " Make this quick, this is not a place used to

disturbances, I think. "

" Shall we take all three? " Misha asked.

" We are only here for the two women, but now it seems this fellow

shall accompany them. We must keep things tidy, eh? "

" Yes we must, " Misha replied. " If not for this simple fact, I

would not be using such a detestable substance. " He held up the clear

bottle for emphasis.

" Our little DMSO/Pentobarbital Sodium cocktail does not agree

with you? " The big man asked Misha.

" I think it is a clumsy and dangerous potion; " Misha replied. He

stooped to monitor Ukyo's pulse. "An overdose may cause central nervous

system depression to the point of death. And as for the precautions we

must take..."

" Perhaps, but they are easier to carry than a dart gun. Even the

Japanese ask questions. "

" And will these be any easier to move through a diplomatic

pouch? " Dmitri asked. He had Nabiki in a fireman's carry.

" That is not your concern, Dmitri. I am your concern. Now

finish this, " the big man said ominously. Neither Misha nor Dmitri

wished to further incense him.

They carried Nabiki, Kuno and Ukyo into a waiting car, a large

Zil that was terribly unsuited to the narrow streets of Tokyo. The

large man searched Ukyo's pockets, withdrawing her keys. They tidied

the restaurant up, turned off the griddles and the lights and locked the

doors. The Zil pulled out into the street, and was gone by the time a

passing policeman on a bicycle came by to check on Ucchan's.

All closed up. Everything looks quiet, he thought, and pedaled

off on his beat.

"If I have anything to say about it, I'm never gonna set foot in LAX

again," Ranma vowed.

Akane nodded in agreement. British Airways Flight 1007 with

service to New York and London bucked in the air as the jetliner

passed through turbulent air over the Sierra Nevadas. The ruddy arid

mountains gave way to the great salt flats and sun hardened earth of

the Mojave Desert. Thin and wispy clouds scudded below them.

Tiny white lines of roads criss-crossed the yellows and browns of

the wastes.

The fasten seatbelts light flicked on with a soft gonging tone as the

jetliner bucked again. The voice of the Captain issued from the speakers

in his unperturbed British accent assuring his passengers that they would

clear the turbulence quickly and wouldn't you please remain seated for

just a little longer.

Ranma continued to stew about Los Angeles International Airport,

LAX. They had to collect their baggage, clear US Customs, arrange

passage on the next British Airways flight to London, and actually make

their flight on time. Their Diplomatic Visas spared them any trouble

with Customs; but then they were so overworked that Ranma doubted

they would have given them any trouble without the visas.

LAX itself was only easily accessible if you remained on the same

carrier. Changing from Japan Air Lines to British Airways meant

walking a good three quarters of a mile from one terminal to the other

through a maze of tunnels. There were little carts that ferried passengers

to and fro, but Ranma couldn't get any of them to stop for him and

Akane. His first exposure to Americans in their own country was less

than flattering to say the least. Then again, it might have just been LA.

He had slept a little on the seemingly endless flight from Tokyo to

Honolulu, had snoozed intermittently on the way to LA, and was now

looking forward to another six hours in the air to reach New York's La

Guardia Airport for a fuel and passenger layover prior to the final hop

across the Atlantic. In other words he was feeling cramped, tired,

bored, and grouchy. Akane on the other hand had endured the flight

with angelic patience, a fact which puzzled him. Patience had never

been one of Akane's strong suits.

"This turbulence is starting to bug me," he groused.

Akane grinned, "Oh I dunno, I think it's kind of fun!"

Ranma made a face as if he'd suddenly tasted something awful.

"You would."

"Oh come on, this is great! We're on vacation, and there isn't

anyone else but the two of us. No Happosai to avoid, no Kuno to

fight, no Shampoo with all of her tricks. Best of all, this is free!"

What happened to being nervous about leaving home?

"Is that how you look at this?" he retorted. "A vacation? We're

doing this so we don't have to spend the rest of our lives tethered to

each other."

Akane shot him an angry look.

"What?" he asked when she didn't say anything. She turned away

and stared forward at the seat in front of her.

"Aw come on, now what did I do?" he asked her.

She remained stubbornly silent.

"Come on Akane. What ever it was I said or did, I'm sorry. Okay?"

She picked up a magazine she had purchased in the Honolulu

Airport and began to thumb through it, taking great pains to ignore

him as she did so.

"Is this the part where you stop speaking to me for three days?" he

asked.

Silence.

"I guess so," he remarked tiredly.

In spite of everything we can't ever seem to get along for very

long... Hot and cold, that's what we are to each other, he observed

quietly. I'd settle for a nice comfy warm, but I have no idea how to

do it.

He continued to dwell on such thoughts for awhile. He looked

once at her as she read the magazine. She had devoured the thing

during their layover in Honolulu, so he wondered just what it was that

was so interesting that she would read it again. Unless it was just

boredom, he decided it was simply her way of getting back at him for

whatever he had said to make her angry.

Well you tried to apologize, so what else can you do? he

asked himself. The answer came with long experience in these

matters. Just ride out Hurricane Akane till she blows over again,

I guess.

A meal came, he ate it with absolutely no zeal. A movie was shown,

he watched it because he had nothing else to do and because he was

going to need the exposure to English very soon. He slept for another

hour before touching down in New York. The layover seemed endless,

but eventually they were airborne for the last leg of the trip. It was

night again, and the Atlantic Ocean was consuming blackness flecked with

tiny jewels of reflected moonlight.

Another six hours in the air. Akane had curled up to a novel she

had purchased in a La Guardia bookshop. Her CD player sat on her

lap atop the royal blue blanket she had wrapped herself in. She was

engrossed in the novel, and didn't notice the way he looked wistfully

at her.

He tried to sleep, but he was too restless to do so. Instead he left

his seat for another walk up to the upper deck lounge of the 747. A

few people played cards and moved little colored pegs across a board.

He couldn't remember what the game was called.

A young woman motioned for him to come over. She was Caucasian, with

wavy brown hair that was pulled into a tight chignon at the base of her

neck. Her eyes were a curious gray-green that caught the yellow light of

the lounge's lamps in bright flashes of fire. Her skin had an odd complexion

to it as well, as if there was a thin oil on water film embossed upon it.

She was thin of face and fine of features, but otherwise pretty to look at.

He really had nothing else to do, and so he joined her at the bar.

The bartender took his heavily accented request for a glass of water

with a friendly nod. The woman chuckled softly.

" First time abroad? " she asked him. He couldn't place her accent.

" Yes, " he answered. " Is it obvious? "

She chuckled again. " Travel doesn't seem to agree with you, " she

remarked.

" It has been a long trip, " he replied. He wondered if he was

butchering the language he was trying to speak.

" I was just curious. I've seen you come up here to the lounge at

least six times since Los Angeles but you never get anything to drink

and you never stay long. You don't seem very comfortable either. "

He sipped from the plastic cup of ice water the bartender placed

at his elbow. Funny, I don't remember seeing you any of those

times, he thought.

" If you don't mind my asking, what brings you to London? " she

asked in the silence that followed.

" I am visiting a friend there. " He said it like he was reciting a

lesson out of high school English class. Hopefully she would tire of his

shaky English and leave him alone.

She smiled at him instead.

"Would you be more comfortable if we conversed in a language

more familiar?" she asked sweetly in flawless Japanese.

That had him speechless for a moment.

"Um, sure..." he replied.

"Wonderful," she enthused. "My name is Anazali, but please call

me Ana."

"Just Ana?" he asked. What kind of gaijin name was that?

"Just Ana."

Ranma remembered his manners. "My name is Saotome Ranma."

"May I call you Ranma, or would you prefer Mister Saotome?"

Ana asked.

Mister Saotome? Nah, sounds too much like my old man.

"Ranma is fine," he answered.

She leaned a little closer. He wasn't sure if she was coming on to

him or not.

"Are you alone?"

"I'm traveling with my fianc饬" he replied with enough pride as to

hopefully discourage her.

She nodded approvingly, which made him feel a little more comfortable

about her.

"A vacation then?" she asked.

He thought about what Akane had said then, and how he had rebuked her.

"Sort of," he replied. He felt guilty again about what he had said to

Akane, and she read it in his voice.

"Oh forgive me. I didn't mean to pry, but it seems as if I've done

enough already." She excused herself and left the lounge.

Ranma scratched his head in puzzlement.

Akane had drifted off to sleep again, as had most of the First Class

cabin. He resolved to at least try and go to sleep, if only to make the

time pass quicker. He pulled a blanket over himself and settled back in

his seat. Akane's head lolled onto his shoulder, and for the first time

since they'd left Los Angeles did he feel at peace. Sleep found him

shortly.

Ukyo was the first to wake up. She had a terrible case of cotton

mouth, which she quickly discovered was due to the heavy cloth gag

tightly wrapped about her head. To her chagrin she also realized that

her hands and feet were bound, and had since gone all pins and needles

on her.

She tried to work herself upright. Nabiki and Kuno were still out

cold. They too were bound and gagged. She didn't have a clue where

they were; only that it was cold, dark, and there was a very

discomforting roaring noise outside.

The tiny space they occupied lurched suddenly to the side. She

rolled over Kuno and sprawled against the far wall, which was curved.

The space leveled out, and in that moment she realized they were on

board an airplane. Probably the luggage compartment.

There was a rattling sound above her, and light spilled violently

into the space. She played asleep as a voice rumbled in some thick

language she didn't understand.

" They are still asleep, " the voice grumbled.

" Shall we loosen their bonds? This long without adequate

circulation is not good for the limbs, " another voice declared.

" They shall keep until we reach the dacha, " the first replied.

The door above Ukyo slammed shut, leaving her with only the dim

light of a single 25 watt bulb to see by.

She tried at her bonds. Her limbs didn't want to respond, and

when they did she found she didn't have much strength in them. After

some time she worked her gag loose. Now her mouth had a very

garlicky taste in it, no doubt the side effects of whatever they had

used to drug her.

But who the hell are They? she wondered angrily. And what do

they want with us?

Nabiki stirred beside her. She looked up to see Ukyo straining again

at her bonds.

She spat out the gag.

"Ukyo? You okay?"

Ukyo shook her head. "No, I'm not. How about you?"

"My arms and legs are asleep, and my head is killing me, but other

than that I'm fine," she remarked. "Where are we?"

"A jet I think," Ukyo replied.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know. I just woke up, myself."

Nabiki worked her way closer to Ukyo. "Any ideas on who's kidnapped

us? What they want?"

Ukyo shook her head. "I heard them talking, but I can't understand

the language."

Nabiki blew her breath out sadly. "Then I guess we wait. The one

thing we have going for us is whoever they are, they don't want us

dead."

"Yet," Ukyo replied.

"Well in the meantime, can you reach my hands? Maybe get them free?"

Ukyo wiggled around to look at Nabiki's hands. Some kind of fibrous

packing tape bound them securely at the wrists.

"I could work at it," she said after a moment. She wasn't thrilled

with the idea of what she would have to do to get Nabiki free, but if it

meant getting her own limbs free...

She began to work at the tape with her teeth. The stuff was strong

and didn't want to tear cleanly. It also tasted horrible.

"Yick!" she spat.

"Problem?" Nabiki asked.

"I can't get this stuff to tear," Ukyo whispered hoarsely.

Nabiki looked around the small compartment. There's got to be

something here we can use.

They searched for a few moments in vain. The door above them

opened, catching them unawares. As the harsh light spilled down upon

them they froze, but it was too late.

" It seems they have awoken, " one of the men said.

" Take care of it, " the other admonished.

Another jet of cold liquid lanced down at them. They felt it's icy

touch boring through their skin at once, and both gasped in shock. Then

the drugs took effect and they settled down against each other and went

to sleep.

" What about the third? "

" He sleeps the sleep of the righteous, " the first observed.

" Hit him again anyway. We can't play at favorites. "

He gave Kuno a small dose.

" Do you have another set of Diprivan injections prepared for

them? " The big man asked.

" Yes, but I want to wait on adminstering them. I don't want to

spend the next hour monitoring their vitals because you don't feel they

have been sedated sufficiently. "

" Watch your tone, Misha, " the big man advised.

Chapter Three

Ryoga Hibiki couldn't believe his luck could get any worse. He had

finally found someone in all of India (at least that was where he thought

he was) that he could talk to. The man had given him a comfortable bed to

sleep in, and the best food he had eaten in a long time. (Even if wasn't

Japanese cuisine.) But now he had gotten himself lost. Again.

"Dammit!" he swore between clenched teeth. "I didn't get a chance to

ask him where I was!"

Much less even thank him... He probably thinks I'm some kind of

ingrate!

He spent the rest of the day trying to find his way back to the little

cabin where he had spent the night. There were no landmarks to search for,

there was only jungle, and it all looked the same. He was just hacking

through jungle now, he couldn't even find the nominal game trail he had

started upon in the morning.

As the last of the sweltering day wore on, Ryoga conceded that it was

time to lay down to sleep. He wasn't asleep longer than an hour before a

familiar voice stirred him to wakefulness. He opened his eyes to see the

same man who had taken him in the day before squatting next to him. His

faintly golden skin glowed in the waning light of the day.

"Was my hospitality that poor?" the man asked him in a joking tone

of voice.

"No!" Ryoga blurted, happy to see him and a little embarrassed that

the man might think that.

"I was worried," he said with a chuckle. "I don't entertain guests

very often, and I feared that your disappearance was a reflection upon my

stale hospitality."

"Not at all!" Ryoga cried. Now he was really embarrassed. "It's just

that I, uh, well, you see I kinda have this problem..."

"Problem?"

"Yeah..." Ryoga made a weak grin and tried to laugh it off. "I sort

of get lost easily."

The man nodded sagely and looked around the jungle. "Yes, I could see

where one could get lost in the middle of this quite easily. Fortunately

for the both of us I have lived here for a good while and know the way."

He looked back to Ryoga.

"Are you hungry?"

Ryoga was in fact famished. He had been so desperate to find his way

back to the cabin that he hadn't eaten any of his meager store of traveling

rations. He bobbed his head in agreement.

"Well then, perhaps we should retire to my home. I have a nice bit of

venison roasting, and it should be quite tender by now."

He stood up and began walking up the slope of the gentle hill Ryoga

lay against. Ryoga hastily got to his feet and followed the man. He wasn't

going to let him out of his sight.

"Excuse me, sir?" Ryoga asked as he caught up with the man.

"Yes? What is it?"

"I uh, I never did ask you your name..."

The man stopped and turned to face him. He extended his hand to him.

Ryoga took it in his. He was about to shake it when he realized the strange

man had no such intentions. He simply clasped Ryoga's hand in his for a

moment.

"I am known by many names, but my given name is Minhiriath. It's a

small bit of humor on my parents' part. They were both named after rivers."

Ryoga was pretty sure there was a joke in there somewhere, but he was

at a loss to find it. He tried to laugh, decided it wasn't appropriate if

he didn't catch the joke, and instead introduced himself.

"I am Hibiki Ryoga."

The man smiled and released his grip.

"Am I to know you as Hibiki, or as Ryoga, or as Hibiki Ryoga?"

Ryoga wasn't sure how to respond. Did he really know this man well

enough to warrant the familiarity of first names? The man was his elder,

though.

"Uh, Ryoga would be okay."

"Ryoga it is then! Come, Ryoga! If I am half starved, then I can

imagine how your belly calls out to be filled!"

Ryoga followed Minhiriath up the hill. To his chagrin he found that

the cabin was at the top of the hill, and that he had been walking circles

around it all day. He just couldn't believe his bad luck!

Minhiriath opened the door for him and bade him enter. He would be

along shortly, and wouldn't he sit and make himself comfortable? Ryoga

stepped inside a little self-consciously. Minhiriath walked around the

corner of the cabin humming to himself.

The inside of the cabin was as he remembered it from the previous day.

Rather spartan furnishings, all made of wood save for a single wrought iron

chair that sat unused in the corner. A wooden table with four chairs stood

next to the simple kitchen and wood burning cooking stove. Great bunches of

red peppers hung from the high open beamed ceiling to dry. Near the fireplace,

which was cold and unused in a great while, were two worn out but very

comfortable old upholstered chairs and a small, finely crafted and carved

coffee table made of oak. Ryoga was no expert on trees, but was pretty sure

there were no oaks around here. A great many books and papers cluttered a

desk in the corner of the room farthest from everything else.

The place had a very homey and comfortable feel to it. Nothing distinct,

just a very reassuring lived-in kind of feel. The cabin radiated well being.

He watched the dust glitter through a glass window in the kitchen alcove and

sat down in one of the chairs. His weariness was replaced with a sense of

drowsy contentment.

Minhiriath appeared some time later with a sizzling skewer of meat and

several fired clay bowls balanced atop each other. Ryoga stood to help him,

but the gold skinned man waved him off. He set the food on the table, which

Ryoga now noticed had places laid out for two.

"We came home at just the right time," Minhiriath observed. "The meat

is so tender it's nearly falling off the skewer." He gestured to the simple

but inviting spread upon the table.

"Help yourself, Ryoga, while I fetch the bread and the butter. Do you

drink wine or would you prefer something else? I have a very fine wheat beer;

I racked it into casks just last month, and it should be quite drinkable."

Ryoga made his way towards the table.

"Water please," he told him.

Minhiriath clucked disapprovingly. "Are you certain? It's very good

wine. And the beer..." His eyes seemed to drift away dreamily at the thought.

Ryoga shrugged. His host seemed to be very politely insisting.

"Well, a little I guess."

The golden skinned man gave him a toothy sparkling smile. "You won't be

disappointed, my friend."

He stepped outside again.

Ryoga took a seat at the table. In spite of the invitation to dig in

from his host, he decided the polite thing to do would be to wait. Minhiriath

stepped back inside with a loaf of bread, a crock of butter precariously

balanced on the top of his head, and two large mugs of ice cold beer. Ryoga

could only conclude that the man had an ice house or something like it around,

as the cabin had no electricity.

Minhiriath set a mug of beer before Ryoga, then caught the butter as it

slipped off his head and placed it next to the bread. He took a hit from his

mug and then sat down across from Ryoga.

"I admire your sense of manners Ryoga, but if you don't start eating I

shall stave your skull in," he told him with a glint in his eye, and a tone

of voice that seemed to say he wasn't kidding.

Ryoga took the hint. He carved a large piece of meat off the skewer

with a knife as Minhiriath began buttering a slice of bread. He crushed a

few dried red peppers over Ryoga's venison and then sat back to watch him

eat.

Ryoga knew from experience that the peppers weren't terribly hot, but

had a rich and lively flavor to them. He had been eating such highly seasoned

food for two months now, and had grown accustomed to it. He took a bite and

nearly melted with delight. The meat was so tender and full of flavor that

his tastebuds were about to explode with overload. It might have been the

dull routine of weeks of traveling rations, but the food was absolutely

amazing.

He washed it down with a drink of the beer. It was mellow and a little

nutty flavored. It was also ice cold. He took another drink.

Minhiriath laughed and began to eat as well.

Later, when the two of them had eaten enough for six grown men and the

sun had long since set, they sat at the table and drank more of the beer and

talked. Ryoga was happy to have someone to talk to, and Minhiriath seemed to

be of a similar mind. Ryoga talked about his travels, his uneasiness at

admitting his problems of misdirection washed away with a few mugs of

Minhiriath's beer.

His host for his part talked of his garden and his wine and beer making,

and of the local squabbles that sometimes shattered the peace of the hill he

called home. Ryoga was familiar with them as well. He had made a few enemies

among the bandits and mercenaries that wandered down from the nearby mountains

in his travels.

"I always thought India was a peaceful place," Ryoga remarked. "Isn't

that what Hinduism is about?"

Minhiriath gave him a funny look.

"I'm sorry, Ryoga. It must be the beer, but I thought you said 'India'

a moment ago."

Ryoga began to get that sinking feeling again.

"Um... You mean this isn't India?"

Minhiriath barked out laughter. Ryoga began to blush with shame.

"Heavens no, Ryoga!" he cried merrily. "You spoke of misdirection, but

you honestly thought this was India?" He laughed again, then stopped when he

saw how ashamed and sad Ryoga looked.

"I am sorry, Ryoga. I know this must be terrible to have to listen to.

I regret to say that you are a continent or two off course. You are in

southeastern Peru. The closet thing approximating a city around here is

Puerto Maldonado about three days walk from here, on one of the feeder

tributaries to the Amazon River."

The color drained from Ryoga's face.

Peru? I'm in Peru? Where the hell is Peru?

Ryoga raised his hand slowly, wanting to speak.

"What is it, man?" Minhiriath asked him.

"Where exactly is Peru?"

Minhiriath decided that Ryoga was quite sincere in his ignorance. There

was no point in belittling him any further on it, the young man had obviously

suffered enough.

"The western coast of South America, my friend. A very long way from

India, I'm afraid."

"I'm supposed to be in China," Ryoga lamented. "How did I get here?

How?"

Minhiriath thought back to Ryoga's wandering tales.

"You said you did a lot of traveling in the dead of winter, correct?"

Ryoga nodded sadly and took another drink of his beer.

"And you said you were sure you didn't cross any oceans, correct?"

Ryoga nodded again and took yet another drink.

Minhiriath thought about it for a moment, but there was only one

explanation, however unlikely it seemed.

"Well, my guess is that you somehow blundered north into Russia and

then crossed over the Bering Strait into Alaska while it was frozen over.

Although how you came all the way south, passing through the United States,

and getting here without realizing that you weren't in Asia anymore astounds

me."

Ryoga blushed again.

"Well you see, part of my problem with me getting lost all the time

might have something to do with thinking about other things than where I'm

going. I do that a lot when I walk."

"You must have had something that weighed very heavily upon your mind

that you didn't notice the United States of America."

Ryoga stared down into his nearly empty mug of beer.

"Yeah... I guess you could say that..."

Minhiriath took Ryoga's mug and dipped it into the cask that he had

long since brought inside. He handed the full and foamy cup back to him.

Ryoga took another drink.

"I think this may be something you wish to talk about, but if that is

not the case then I shall make no more mention of it," Minhiriath said

quietly.

Ryoga nodded and drained half of the mug. His host declined to fill

it again for him; the young man had drank enough for one night. Instead he

sat there in the uncomfortable silence that followed and watched his guest

lower his head deep in thought.

Akane... Ryoga thought sadly. Akari... He sighed in his

drunkenness. I'll never see either of you again...

Minhiriath watched as Ryoga drifted away. He wasn't expecting the man

to roll forward and spill his mug of beer all over himself. He certainly

wasn't expecting what followed.

Ryoga began to squeal in drunken rage within the folds of his clothes.

When the little black pig stuck his snout out from under the dirty olive drab

tank top with a cursing grunt, Minhiriath's eyes went wide for a second.

Ryoga began to blush shamefully as best as a pig can.

"Good heavens, Ryoga!" he cried. "It appears misdirection is the

least of your problems!"

Ryoga squealed and nodded his head. His little eyes were beady and

bloodshot.

"Is there anything I can do? Does this wear off with time?"

Ryoga shook his head and tried to grunt an explanation that Minhiriath

couldn't understand.

"I'm sorry, I'm not following you... Wait just a moment. I'm just a

little out of practice with this."

Minhiriath squinted a little and seemed to stare into Ryoga's skull.

Now what changes you back? he thought into Ryoga's mind.

Ryoga scooted to the back of the chair in surprise.

Calm down, Ryoga. Now I asked you what changes you back?

Ryoga wasn't sure what to make of this development, but thought back

in response:

Hot water.

Minhiriath nodded. Ryoga was just a little drunk, and his thoughts

were scattered and slurred, but hot water seemed to make an odd kind of

sense; as cold water (or beer) had changed him in the first place.

"There! That wasn't so difficult. Wait right here and I'll put

a kettle on."

Minhiriath got up and set a kettle on the cook stove to boil. Ryoga

squealed dejectedly and settled into the folds of his clothes. With the

shock of his transformation over, he was starting to feel the beer again.

He began to pass out.

Would you prefer we wait until morning to change you back?

Ryoga nodded sleepily and passed out.

When the young pig was fast asleep, Minhiriath picked up him gently,

and carried him to one of the chairs. He noticed the bandanna around his

neck and thought it was a little silly that it should have stayed on him

when he had lost the rest of his clothes in the change. He set a thin wool

blanket over him and retired to his desk where he lit a few oil lamps.

As Ryoga began to make piggy snoring sounds, he poured over his books

and papers. Taking a calculator out of a drawer, he began punching in

numbers and scribbling the results on a large chart. With a compass and

straight edge he began tracing out lines that if one looked out the window,

would approximate the tracks of stars moving across an ancient sky.

Chapter Four

Heathrow Airport was shrouded in gloom. Rain fell in a steady

patter against the bay windows in counter melody to the roar of jets

and the sounds of taxi and bus traffic. Londoners scuttled to and fro

with their umbrellas, so used to the weather as to ignore it.

Ranma was doing no such thing. The last thing he needed was to

change into a girl right now. Unfortunately the idea of bringing an

umbrella along had escaped them.

"Great. Just great," he mumbled. "Now what?"

Akane huffed something under her breath.

Ranma was getting tired of Akane's cold shoulder. "What?" He

asked caustically.

She shot a harsh look at him. "I can't believe you sometimes!" She

spat. "Can't you look on the bright side of anything?"

Ranma made a show of observing the heavy dark clouds and the

constant drizzle of rain. "There's a bright side here? I must've missed

it for all the rain."

"Ohh!" Akane replied in ire. Her fists were balled to strike.

"Hey, there you are!" Hiro called from behind them.

They spun around to see him standing with an oversized umbrella

in his hand. He was wearing blue jeans and a thin argyle sweater. A

grey tweed cap was perched atop his head.

"I was having trouble finding you. Then I heard you arguing.

Japanese is pretty distinctive around here." He gestured around him.

People were just starting to realize that the show was over and were

clearing off.

Hiro cracked a grin and looked them over.

"Nice threads Saotome! Let me guess, Nabiki picked it out, right?"

Ranma looked down at himself. "Uh, right."

Hiro looked over Akane and smiled in approval. "You're looking

radiant," he observed to her.

Akane smiled in return. "Thank you Hiro. At least someone noticed."

Ranma clicked his tongue, but otherwise stayed in check.

Hiro grabbed Akane's luggage. "Ah come on, that's just the jet-lag

talking. We need to get you back to the house and freshened up a bit.

You'll be feeling better in no time, I promise."

He started off without them. Ranma and Akane hurried to catch up.

They both huddled close to him under the umbrella. A Rolls Royce

Silver Ghost sat in reserved parking.

"A would have brought the Jag', but I think we'd have to ditch the

luggage to fit you inside," Hiro remarked. He opened the trunk and

placed their luggage carefully inside. Then he opened the door for

Akane.

She stepped in, and Hiro quickly collared Ranma and sent him in

to sit next to her before the martial artist could flee to the passenger

side front.

"There you go," Hiro said as he shut the door. "Play nice now."

He settled into the driver's seat.

"The good thing about England is that they know what side of the

road to drive on," he said as he keyed the ignition.

"And the bad thing?" Akane asked.

"You can't find good Japanese food here to save your life. I hope

you like Western."

He drove them far out of the city and into the rolling countryside.

The rain had stopped and the sun peeked from behind the thinning

clouds. After an hour he whipped the Silver Ghost around onto a side

road in classic Hiro Ohata fashion, sending Akane into Ranma's lap

with cry of surprise.

"Yeah, some things haven't changed." Ranma said with a smirk.

Akane sat up and moved back to her side of the car.

"We're almost there," Hiro called from the front.

A huge green meadow was on either side of the cobblestone side

road. Lines of trees marked out the ends of the field in the distance.

Two decaying Quonset huts rusted peacefully nearby. A faded white

star upon a blue circle topped one of the huts.

"What was this place?" Ranma asked.

Hiro followed the road into a turn. "This was an airfield during the

Blitz," he replied. "First the British used it for fighters, and then the

Americans took over and flew B-17s and launched gliders for the invasions

of France and Holland. Most of it's torn down now. Just those two rusty

hangars and a couple of Horsa and Waco glider wrecks in back."

Akane looked out the window. "That windsock looks pretty new," she

observed. The bright orange windsock fluttered in the breeze.

Hiro pointed to a Bell JetRanger sitting in the distance. "The place

is still used as an airfield by the Professor. Mostly helicopters, but we

also retain a Catalina pilot and his plane. The guy's name is Durango, and

if you think my driving's nuts wait 'till you fly with him!"

"I'll pass," Ranma said quickly.

Hiro pulled up to a very large and comfortable looking three-story

mansion. Smoke wafted from a stone chimney. Several gardeners dared to

venture out in their galoshes and tend to a flower bed by the front door.

"Here we are," he said to them.

He stopped the car and helped Akane out onto the stone walkway.

He collected all of the luggage, including Ranma's, and led them to the

door. A servant opened it for them, and another took their coats.

Ranma and Akane started to take off their shoes.

Hiro shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. Keep them on," he advised in Japanese.

The two shrugged in apology and left their shoes on. Hiro continued

into the foyer.

"I'll show you to your rooms and then I have to put the car in the

garage. Get settled in the rooms, and if you need anything, or forgot

anything, just let me know."

He led them up a grand stairwell in the foyer, past the second floor

landing, and turned left on the third floor. The floors were plushly

carpeted, seeming to soak up the sounds of their footsteps as they

walked. The oak paneled walls were hung with Impressionist paintings

by Degas and Renoir, several works by Turner, family portraits, old

coats-of-arms, and with assorted bits of medieval armor and weaponry.

Their rooms were side by side with lovely southern exposures and

large French windows to take advantage of it. A four poster bed was

laden with quilts and large satin lined pillows. Heavy oak dressers,

wardrobes and other furniture were tastefully arranged about the

spacious room. The walls were papered in soft blues and cream.

"Comfy?" Hiro asked.

Akane nodded. "It'll do," she remarked slowly.

"You'll get used to it soon enough," Hiro said with a laugh. "I'll be

back in a few minutes!" He left them to themselves.

"Well, we're here." Ranma said.

"Yep," Akane replied.

"It's not so bad."

"Nope."

Ranma looked about the room. "So uh, which room do you want?"

Akane walked to the window and gazed out upon the meadow.

"Whichever."

"Well go ahead and pick one, I'll take whichever one you don't want."

"This is fine," she replied, still looking out the window.

He waited a few minutes, deciding if he should interrupt her again.

"Akane?"

"Yes?"

"Um, are we on speaking terms again?"

"Maybe."

Ranma sighed. The jet-lag was beginning to show on him. "Okay.

I'll go and unpack, I guess."

He left her without another word and took his luggage to the other

room, which was done in dark reds and golds. He would have figured Akane

for choosing this room instead of the more sedate one she now occupied.

He opened his suitcases and began unpacking his things. Kasumi had packed

just about everything he owned, which wasn't much when you thought about

it. She had even packed his old camouflage jacket, which he had taken to

wearing even after his discharge because it had grown on him.

She must have remembered me always wearing it around the house,

he mused.

He decided to change out of his suit. It might have looked good on

him, but he just didn't feel right wearing it. It wasn't him. He set his

expensive hand tailored clothes upon several hangers in the wardrobe and

pulled on a green shirt and baggy black trousers. His Italian shoes found

a home in a dresser drawer and his black slippers now adorned his feet

-even if they were a bit worn out.

He looked at the jacket again. He laughed to himself as he ran his

fingers along the neat stitches of olive drab thread where Kasumi had

thoughtfully mended the bullet hole tear on his left sleeve and the little

rents where shrubs and shrapnel had cut close. His corporal's stripes

were already faded on his sleeve as was his name tag embroidered above

the breast pocket.

What the heck... he thought. He put the jacket on. The place

felt like home already.

Hiro returned then and looked him over.

"I was gonna suggest a change of clothes, but it seems you've

second-guessed me."

Ranma brushed at his jacket. "Yeah, that suit was starting to bother

me."

"That's okay. This place is pretty casual most of the time. The

only time you have to be dressed up is dinner. The Professor's pretty

strict about that."

"So when are we gonna see the Professor?" Ranma asked. "I was

hoping we could get this cure taken care of."

Hiro gave him a 'thumbs up.' "Don't you worry, my friend, you're

in good hands."

"So what's he going to do?"

Hiro shrugged. "I have no idea." He started out the door to collect

Akane. Ranma followed after him.

Akane had changed as well. She was wearing a floral print dress

and sandals. It seemed a little strange to be wearing shoes in the house,

but she figured she could get used to it.

She fell in line with Hiro and Ranma, noting how the two were

unconsciously in step with each other as they walked.

"The Professor's waiting to meet you in the study. He'll want to

ask you a few more questions like he did in Japan, maybe run a few

simple medical tests, that kind of thing." Hiro said to them.

Professor McFogg, Ferguson, Katy Price and Mr. Clay were waiting in

the study. Old maps, game trophies, and wildlife paintings filled the dark

oak paneled walls. One entire wall was given over to books, from oak floor

to paneled ceiling. Persian rugs were placed beneath tables and desks and

a carved ivory and glass hookah from India sat in the corner.

The Professor and his company stood politely in greeting for them.

" Ah, our guests have arrived, " McFogg said warmly. " Welcome to my

home! I trust you had as pleasant a trip as can be had from Tokyo? "

They both bowed politely.

McFogg offered them a comfy black leather loveseat to sit upon.

" Please sit and make yourselves comfortable. I thought we should take

a light lunch in the study and discuss your problem together. "

They sat down next to each other, and Hiro went off to fetch the

servants.

Ferguson wasted no time in speaking.

" You say that you're having nightmares? " he asked.

" Both of us, " Ranma answered.

" The same nightmares at the same time, " Akane added.

Ferguson's brow crinkled in thought. Clay seemed to nod knowingly.

" Do you dream of any places you've never been? " Clay asked.

Katy clucked something under her breath at this.

" Yes, " they replied in unison.

" Any places you can remember? "

Ranma didn't seem to, but Akane was quick to reply.

" I remember France. The Eiffel Tower actually. The other places

didn't seem very familiar. "

Clay nodded again.

" Interesting, " Ferguson noted. " The area around the Eiffel Tower

has been classified as an active site. Three lines converge there. " He

consulted a laptop computer. " No, I was wrong, five lines converge

there. "

" That's why they built it where they did, " Clay reminded him.

Katy rolled her eyes.

" What's all this about 'lines'? " Ranma asked. " What kind of

'lines'? "

McFogg took a puff from his pipe. " The Earth is criss-crossed with

lines of electromagnetic energy. We don't quite understand why these lines

appear; in fact the whole idea clashes with the accepted theories of the

Earth's electromagnetism as generated by the motion of its molten

internals. The Chinese refer to the study of these lines and their proper

use in architectural planning as Feng Shui. "

" Is that what happened to us? " Akane asked. " We stepped into the

middle of a bunch of these lines? "

" These lines of force can appear and disappear at intervals, "

Ferguson said. " Part of what we're doing is mapping them out for study.

To see if we can determine a pattern from them and perhaps answer the

questions surrounding their existence. Apparently you and your fianc頍

were at the junction of six lines when they appeared. "

" So what happened to us? Our doctor examined us and found our ki's

were out of balance. In opposite respects to each other too, " Ranma said.

Ferguson and Katy gave him dumb looks. Only Clay and McFogg seemed

to understand. Clay seemed to squint his eyes a little as he looked at

them.

" That's odd, " McFogg remarked. " Ferguson, did you scan them with

a Kirlian unit after the event? "

" Yes, Professor. It showed nothing abnormal, " Ferguson replied.

" Well go fetch one and let's have another look, " McFogg told him.

Katy cleared her throat to speak.

" Excuse me, Professor, but what does this have to do with 'ki,'

whatever that is, being 'out of balance'? " she asked.

McFogg took another puff. " Ki is a word that describes the 'energy'

that flows through a person. Eastern thought has it that the body is made

of 'energy,' 'blood,' and 'flesh.' The Greeks had similar views, only

they referred to a 'pneuma' that was more vapor-like, that flowed through

the body. "

" And this means what to a rational twentieth century scientist? "

Katy asked.

She may prove to be a poor choice for this team after all, McFogg

sighed in his mind.

" Ki can also be thought of as the intrinsic electromagnetic fields

that radiate from all living things as detected by the Kirlian Aura Imaging

Device, " McFogg said evenly. " If poor old Kirlian can ever perfect the

thing, it could be used as a diagnostic tool in medicine; as subtle changes

in a person's 'aura' often manifest before disease can be clinically

detected. "

Ferguson returned with a portable Kirlian unit inside a metal case. It

was a large black box with padded handles on either side. The bottom was

actually a sensitive black mylar film with a clear plastic protective cover.

A full color LCD display was on top, along with an array of touch-sensitive

controls. Russian words adorned the side of the box.

He held the bottom of the box up towards Ranma and Akane. The thing

made a faint buzzing sound as he passed it over them. He studied the images

on the display, shaking his head in frustration.

" Same as before, Professor. I can't find any abnormalities with them. "

McFogg stroked at his beard. " Puzzling... "

Clay stood from his chair. " Did your doctor mention any method of

treatment for correcting this imbalance? "

Ranma and Akane looked at each other.

" Sort of; he said we had to stay close to each other, " Ranma replied.

" And if we wanted to be able to sleep without nightmares he said we

had to be touching, if possible, " Akane added shyly.

" And this has been successful? " Clay asked.

" Yeah, so far, " Ranma answered.

Clay motioned for Ranma to stand up. " Stand a few meters apart from

Akane for just a moment, please. "

Ranma did so.

" Try it again, Ferg, " Clay said.

Ferguson ran the Kirlian over Akane.

" I'll be damned, " he said in soft surprise. " Her aura's a bloody

mess! "

" Now try Mister Saotome, " Clay said.

Ferguson scanned Ranma.

" It's the same thing in reverse! " he cried.

Clay motioned for Ranma to join Akane again.

" Now look at them together again. "

Ferguson scanned them as they sat together nervously on the loveseat.

" Everything looks good now. Unbelievable... That must have been why

we missed it in Tokyo; they were standing next to each other when I scanned

them. "

Clay folded his arms across his chest. " Precisely. Their imbalances

are complementary to each other. In close proximity they are rectified, but

separate them and they will return to their disordered states. "

" Well done, Mister Clay! " McFogg enthused.

Ranma didn't share his enthusiasm. " So what do we have to do for a

cure? " he asked.

They were silent for a moment.

" Well, there are some other tests we shall have to perform first

to refine our data, and to be honest this sort of thing hasn't happened

before, to my recollection, " McFogg began.

" In other words, you don't know, " Ranma said bluntly.

" That is true, " McFogg replied. " However, I think your best chance

of recovery is here. I am confident that we can help you. Though it may

take some time. "

" How much time? " Ranma asked.

" To be honest, I can't say with any measure of certainty, " McFogg

admitted.

" Then the sooner we start on these tests of yours, the better, "

Ranma said tersely.

" I agree, " Clay added. " To delay may cost us valuable clues. "

Hiro came in with the servants and with lunch. He had a tray full

of iced tea glasses, which he maneuvered towards Ranma and Akane. He

wasn't watching where he was going however, and tripped over Akane's purse

lying on the floor next to the loveseat.

Akane was just a little faster on her feet than Ranma, who was

studying Ferguson's Kirlian with mixed emotions. Thus she was spared the

deluge of iced tea that came for them. Ranma of course wasn't as fortunate.

Ranma-chan cried out in anguish as the last of the tea splashed over

her. She screamed upright trying to brush the ice cubes off her chest and

keep the tea from soaking into her clothes. Sopping wet long red bangs

spilled over her eyes where short black hair had once been.

"Yeeeoooowwwwthat'scold!!!!" she spluttered in protest.

With the exception of Akane, everyone in the room was staring at her

in stupefied amazement.

Hiro picked himself up off the floor. He looked at Ranma-chan, who

was soaking wet and fuming, then to the others, who were wide-eyed in

disbelief.

" Um, did I forget to mention something to you about Ranma? " he

asked weakly.

Chapter Five

Ryoga Hibiki was a man once more. He was also a man with a hangover.

An 8.5 on the Richter Scale hangover. Minhiriath offered him a vile

smelling concoction in a small clay jar and told him it was a sure-fire

cure for what ailed him. Ryoga was fairly certain the cure would be worse

than the disease.

He pinched his nose and tossed back his head and gulped it down in

one shot. It took all of his will to swallow it. Once the foul stuff had

slid down his throat, he started coughing and his face turned green.

Minhiriath chuckled as he watched Ryoga cough and gag.

"Tasty, yes?"

Ryoga gave him a dirty look when he had regained his composure.

"You'll feel better shortly, I assure you," Minhiriath told him.

Ryoga crossed his eyes as the last bit of aftertaste struck.

"I hope so," he managed.

Minhiriath left him there on the front porch of the cabin to fetch

the remainder of the hot water from the kettle to make tea. He had changed

Ryoga back into a man when the little piggy had stirred to wakefulness lost

and confused within the folds of the blanket he had placed around him.

Ryoga didn't seem to remember much about last night, and seemed very

ashamed to know that Minhiriath was aware of his curse.

Minhiriath, for his part, was amused and nothing more. Once the

initial surprise was past, and he knew how to change Ryoga back, there

was nothing else to be concerned about. He set the kettle down next to

Ryoga along with glazed fired-clay tea cups decorated with some kind of

native motif and a few seed cakes.

"Drink the tea, have a cake; it will help settle your stomach."

Ryoga poured the tea kettle over an infusing basket in his cup. He

sipped at it and nibbled at the cake.

Minhiriath had a cake himself. As he ate he watched the sun begin its

slow journey towards the distant peaks of the Andes mountains.

"I was expecting you, you know," he told Ryoga.

"Expecting me?"

"Yes. I had a dream the other night. In that dream I met you."

Ryoga ate another seed cake.

"That's weird." He didn't have anything better to say. Minhiriath

continued.

"I have a trip to make, starting this morning. In the dream I was

given the impression that you were supposed to accompany me."

Ryoga looked at him over his cup of tea.

"I'm supposed to go with you? How am I supposed to get home to Japan

if I go with you? Or are you going to Japan?"

Minhiriath laughed at this.

"Mercy no, Ryoga! I doubt I could walk quite that far in one go. I

usually like to linger a bit in one place when I travel great distances.

A long bit."

"So where are you going?"

Minhiriath pointed to the distant Andes range. From the vantage of

their hilltop they could see the sharply rising mountain range extend to

either end of the horizon. Clouds blown in from the Pacific scraped across

the crags and peaks and the dull grey blur of rainfall could be seen.

"To the mountains. There is a lake there where some people claim the

god Wiraqocha appeared to them and taught them the secrets of irrigation

and agriculture. He taught them how to live in reciprocity for all things.

It is also the place that marks the very creation of space-time for these

people."

Ryoga scratched his head in thought. Perhaps if he had a better idea

where Peru was, he could get a sense for what the man was talking about.

He knew he had covered at least briefly the other religions and cultures

of the world in school, but his mind was always on other things, and he

found he couldn't remember anything of the sort that Minhiriath talked

about.

"So why am I supposed to go?"

Minhiriath gave him a brief shrug. "I have no idea. Perhaps that will

become clear when we get there... Are you ready to do a little traveling

with me?"

Ryoga finished the last seed cake.

"Well at least I know where I'm going now," he said at last. "I'd

rather go somewhere than just wander."

Chapter Six

Ukyo and Nabiki stirred to life in the belly of the jet. The roar of

the engines was gone, replaced by an unsettling quiet. Tatewaki Kuno

was holding them both in a smothering embrace.

"Oh Pig-Tailed Girl..." he mumbled in semi-consciousness. He

squeezed Ukyo.

"Oh lovely Akane..." he continued. Nabiki received a squeeze with

the other arm.

They both looked at each other with reddened eyes and winced.

"Whoever shall I choose...?" Kuno asked himself quietly.

Ukyo and Nabiki each clouted him on the head.

"Wake up, you idiot!" Ukyo cried.

"And let go of us!" Nabiki added.

Kuno raised his bruised head from the floor. He blinked twice,

taking in the measure and scope of the compartment.

"What is this place? What have they done with Akane and the Pig-

Tailed Girl?"

Ukyo and Nabiki both groaned and slumped to the floor. Their

heads ached and their mouths were full of a bitter garlic taste. Their

hands and feet throbbed, and it was then that they noticed their bonds

were gone.

Kuno sat upright. If he felt any of the after effects of the drugs

used on him, it was not apparent. He stretched out his arms and

looked about the compartment again.

"I did not realize your eatery had a basement," he remarked to

Ukyo.

"It doesn't," she muttered. Her head was turning circles.

"Then where, pray tell, are we?" He asked.

Nabiki rubbed at her hands and shot him an angry look. "Don't you

remember anything before we went down? Those two foreigners that

walked into the shop and sprayed us with that liquid ice stuff?"

"I do not recall," Kuno replied solemnly.

The top hatch opened and bright light avalanched down upon them.

All three hissed in shock and pain and squinted their eyes shut.

"You know, those guys?" Nabiki groused, jerking a thumb up

to the two men who peered down in amusement at them.

"Come out of there slowly, one at a time," one of the men said in

a gruff, terribly accented Japanese.

Kuno went first, as he was the most ambulatory of the three. He

was pulled up out of the compartment and sent roughly against a passenger

seat. A man wearing rust colored leather slapped a pair of shiny steel

manacles on his wrists and sent him out the door. Two more men in weather-

stained coveralls took him at the door and marched him down the boarding

ladder.

Ukyo and Nabiki had to be carried. Misha and Dmitri handed them

off to the men in the coveralls, who placed them in an olive drab six

by six truck. Two men armed with AK-74s sat inside the truck bed and

watched them idly. Russian voices barked from a radio set in the truck

cab.

The sky was clear and blue, with just a few fat clouds rolling along

at high altitude. The air was cool and smelled of the sea. A distant line

of verdant hills was dotted with small cottages. The plaintive cry of

seagulls rent the air.

"Any idea where we are?" Ukyo asked weakly.

"Wherever we are, it's not Japan," Nabiki replied.

"Tyerih skazhyesh' neechevo nyeh!!" one of the armed men shouted.

They didn't understand the words, but when emphasized with the muzzle of

a rifle in their faces, the meaning was quite clear. Even Kuno kept still,

though his rage seethed from his pores.

Misha and Dmitri climbed into the back of the truck. The man in the

rust colored leather joined them a moment later, having thrown the

smoldering remains of his cigarette butt onto the macadam with a casual

flick of his wrist. The three exchanged a few pleasantries with the two

rifle armed men, who laughed at some unknown joke.

The six by six rumbled to life and rolled out along the tarmac. It

took an abrupt left onto the grass and fishtailed a little before

accelerating. Ukyo and Nabiki watched the small twin-engined jet as

they left it behind. A white, blue, and red flag was painted on the tail.

Ivan Tarchenko sat out on the porch of the dacha in a canvas backed

chair. He had just poured himself a stiff cup of tea. For a moment he

contemplated something stronger, perhaps a shot or two of Moskovskaya,

then decided against it. It was perhaps too early for vodka. He decided

to wait until after his business was through.

The six by six rumbled up the hill. Its diesel engine chugged noisily

as the driver downshifted to scale the steep slope. He could already

make out the heavy brow and dark forelocks of Fyodor in the passenger

seat..

I begin to realize that Grigory was right about him. His handling

of this affair has been needlessly blunt. Still, the man has his uses...

The truck stopped along an even grade of the road next to a Zil

four-door sedan and a Range Rover. Misha and Dmitri jumped out of the

back and pulled Kuno, Ukyo and Nabiki with them. The two rifle armed men

and the leather clad man followed after. Fyodor stepped down from the

passenger side of the cab all scowls as usual.

" What did you bring me, Fyodor Gennadiyvich? " Tarchenko called in

a friendly voice.

Fyodor grunted something under his breath.

" I hope they were worth the trouble and expense, " Tarchenko added

in a tone that was anything but friendly. " Take them inside. I shall wait

for your report out here. "

Fyodor gestured to the three prisoners. " Shall I start on them now,

or do you wish to be present? "

Tarchenko shook his head. " Secure them, but leave them be for the

moment. Let them get a sense of appreciation for their predicament first.

In the meantime I shall wait for your report. "

Fyodor grunted in the affirmative and barked orders to his men.

Ukyo, Nabiki, and Kuno were pushed into the front door of the dacha

at gun point. They were confined in a small upstairs closet, the attic

of the A-frame dacha.

"Now what?" Ukyo asked. There was more than a little fear in

her voice.

Nabiki swallowed hard before replying. "I don't know... I guess

they're going to interrogate us."

"About what? We haven't done anything!" Ukyo protested.

"They think we know something important," Nabiki said.

Kuno sat in silence, pondering.

" Explain yourself, Fyodor, " Tarchenko ordered.

Fyodor popped his knuckles loudly before speaking.

" I was conducting the investigation of McFogg's activities in

Tokyo, using our locally deployed field agents. Based on their reports,

we concluded that two people may have come into direct contact with

the Event as it unfolded. It is speculated that they may be exhibiting

the initial stages of Doctor Casimir's Wayfinder. "

This had Tarchenko's attention.

" You are certain? " he asked quickly.

" They were said to be experiencing shared dreams. These were place

dreams, places they had never been. A classic precognitive state if taken

in context. "

Tarchenko nodded in agreement.

" And you have brought them to me. Well done, Fyodor, I have

misjudged you. "

Fyodor growled uneasily. " I have not, Ivan Mikhailyvich. "

" Oh? Then who are these? "

" The short haired woman is a sister to one of the two. The long

haired woman is a confidant. The man has no relevance other than

being with them at the wrong time. "

" Why did you move on these three and not the Wayfinders? "

" They left the country, Ivan Mikhailyvich. We were not given

authorization to act soon enough by the Station Chief for Tokyo. It

was hoped that the two women would be able to provide information

on the whereabouts of the Wayfinders. "

Tarchenko found himself wishing for some of that vodka. He

finished his now tepid cup of tea and sat back in thought. Fyodor sat

in silence awaiting a reply.

" This operation was clumsy and heavy-handed, Fyodor. You

understand that don't you? "

Fyodor looked down at the table. " Yes, Comrade Tarchenko, I

understand. I am not pleased with my performance either. "

" Given the circumstances you did the best you could, " Tarchenko

soothed. " We shall see what we can learn from them. My only regret

is in the needless waste of life this expedition has incurred. "

Fyodor nodded in understanding.

Tarchenko continued. " Make it quick for them. I see no reason to

prolong their suffering beyond that which is required for questioning.

Dispose of their remains as you see fit, but ensure they will never be

found. For them to be reported as missing in Japan and their subsequent

discovery here would be quite an embarrassment for our government.

And of course this must be kept from Doctor Casimir. You know he

does not approve of such measures. "

Fyodor nodded again. " I understand. "

Tarchenko lit up a thick Turkish cigarette. He had become quite

fond of them during his stay in Istanbul. Heavy clouds of blue smoke

wafted over his head, lending him an age despite his youthful

appearance.

" Tell me of these two Wayfinders. Perhaps we can find them

again. "

" They are both approximately nineteen years old. A male and a female.

I believe they are betrothed to each other. The man is a martial artist,

the woman a student. Their names are Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo. " He

stumbled over the names as he said them. " I have several surveillance

photos of them. "

Fyodor handed Tarchenko a small pouch. Tarchenko studied a series

of photographs of Ranma and Akane. Some of them were grainy and obviously

taken through a low-light camera.

" Quite a handsome fellow for a Japanese, " Tarchenko remarked. " The

pig tail should ease in identifying him... The woman is also quite

attractive. He's a lucky man to be engaged to this one... Ensure copies

of these are made available for our operatives in Europe and the United

States. "

" Yes, Comrade Tarchenko, " Fyodor affirmed. " Shall we interrogate

them now? "

Tarchenko finished his cigarette in one huge drag, blowing out a

great blue cloud of smoke as he exhaled.

" Yes. To delay would only cost us. I shall attend the interrogation. "

" This is quite extraordinary! " McFogg exclaimed.

Ranma-chan buried her face in her hand. Akane giggled quietly to

herself.

" Sorry, Professor, " Hiro apologized. " I would have told you,

but I know Saotome is trying to keep his curse a secret from the world

at large. "

"It doesn't seem to be working," Ranma-chan muttered.

Katy Price had nearly passed out from shock. Ferguson was busy

running the Kirlian unit across Ranma-chan, trying to explain what

he'd just seen. Only Clay seemed unperturbed.

Ferguson looked a little closer at Ranma-chan. She began to feel a

little nervous under his gaze.

Suddenly it hit him.

" Hey! I remember you! " he cried.

Ranma-chan began to turn red.

Ferguson continued. " Yeah, I bloody well remember you! You

were dressed up in this teeny little bathing suit and hitting on me! "

" I was not! " Ranma-chan protested.

"What?!" Akane cried.

Ranma-chan cast a nervous glance towards Akane. "Nabiki put me

up to it!" she cried in explanation. "She wanted me to find out what

they were doing in Nerima!"

"Oh sure, blame my sister for it!" Akane retorted.

"Honest! It's true!" Ranma-chan cried. "You can ask her tonight

when we call home!"

"I will!"

McFogg looked Ranma-chan over a bit more closely. " 'Curse'

you say, Ohata? "

" Yes Professor, " Hiro replied.

McFogg stepped back from Ranma-chan. " Could you explain this 'curse'

to me please? "

Ranma-chan realized she wasn't going to be able to get around this

one.

" Um... Well I happened to fall into this cursed spring in China.

There are over a hundred of these springs at this place called Jusenkyo,

and each of them has it's own curse. Whoever falls in a spring takes

the form of whatever drowned there a long time ago. I got lucky

enough to fall into the 'Spring of Drowned Girl.' Now every time I get

hit with cold water I turn into a girl. "

McFogg nodded slowly as he listened to Ranma-chan's words.

" And how do you reverse this effect, or does it wear off with time? "

" Hot water, " Akane supplied.

Ferguson smacked his head with his hand. " Hot and cold gender,

eh? It's incredible. If I hadn't seen it myself I'd never believe it.

Hell, you're a full two heads shorter than you were before -there's no

way you could fake something like that in front of us. "

To say nothing of that outstanding bosom of yours! He

thought with a smile.

McFogg turned to Clay. " Ever heard of something like this? "

" Transformative magic has been speculated, but I've never seen

it in the flesh. " Clay responded.

" Well, I have heard of such a thing, " McFogg said abruptly.

" My father mentioned it once before the War. I wish I could remember

more of what he said, but back then I thought he was a bit daft in the

head. "

" Magic? " Katy cried. " I can't believe I heard you use that word!

I thought we were scientists. "

McFogg leveled a hard-eyed stare at her. " Do you have a rational

explanation for what you have just witnessed? "

" N-No... " She stammered.

McFogg blew a smoke ring with his pipe. " Then for all practical

purposes it's magic. Accept it and things will be much easier for you...

Perhaps you should go and lie down for awhile anyway. You look pale. "

Katy nodded blithely and turned for the door.

Ferguson was still looking at Ranma-chan. " I wonder, are you as

heavy now as a female as you are when you're male? You look like you've

lost thirty kilos easy. "

Ranma-chan gestured to herself. " I'm fifty kilos soaking wet, "

she said, trying to make a joke of her last part. "Unlike some females

I could mention," she added in Japanese for Akane's benefit. Akane

stuck her tongue out at her in reply.

Ferguson blinked in disbelief. " Really? I mean, mass isn't

conserved? How is that possible? "

Ranma-chan shrugged. " I have no idea. "

Ferguson thought a moment. " Perhaps mass is converted to

energy and carried off in some discrete form. Neutrinos maybe. "

" So how does he regain his mass when he changes back? " Clay

asked offhand. " It's a fascinating paradox, but I seriously doubt

you'll find the mechanism for it without a few billion Pounds worth

of hardware and laboratory space, so let's instead focus on the problem

at hand: their unbalanced ki's. "

" Well if this happened because they were in the middle of a nexus,

couldn't they just stand in the next one we're looking for? " Hiro asked.

" Sounds reasonable to me, " Akane said.

" That may not work so easily, " McFogg cautioned. " We don't

understand the mechanisms behind your impairment. I personally have

stood in the center of an active nexus on several occasions and suffered

no ill effects. "

" Same here, " Ferguson added.

Ranma-chan shook her head in disbelief. " So what are we going to

do? "

" We'll need to run some tests using more precise instruments than

this portable Kirlian for starters, " Ferguson declared. " Plus a full

physical workup, EEG, PET scan, et cetera. "

" And how long will this take? " Ranma-chan asked.

Ferguson did some quick calculations. " About a week to collect

the data, another to collate and analyze, no guarantee we can find

anything useful though. As Clay could tell you, the world of the

paranormal is enigmatic to say the least. "

McFogg puffed on his pipe as Ferguson's words sunk in with

Ranma and Akane.

" We'll do the best we can, but it's going to take some time, " he

offered at length.

Chapter Six

Ukyo was pulled upright and half dragged downstairs. The huge

man they called Fyodor was standing before her like a mountain, hard

eyes focused intently on her. There wasn't the slightest hint of mercy

or pity in those dark orbs.

The man in the rust colored leathers was preparing an injection.

Ukyo didn't need any help to guess what it was for. The rifle thugs

stood in the corner and made small talk.

A handsome man in his late twenties sat in a comfortable chair and

drank tea from a crystal and silver cup. He appraised her with an aloof

glance before returning his attention to the man with the syringe. She

noticed the soft music playing behind the man from an old phonograph.

She thought it might be Stravinsky, but the last time she had listened to

western classical music was high school and an eternity ago.

There was no mistaking her chosen seat. It was a simple steel tube

frame chair with an array of strapping and shackles bolted to it.

Function dictated form, and this chair's function was obvious enough.

It wasn't the sight of the men that made her scream. It wasn't even

the ghastly chair. It was the large sheet of clear plastic someone had

thoughtfully placed beneath the chair that finally opened her lips in

terror.

They let her scream for several moments before intervening. She

thrashed in their iron grips as they strapped her down to the hideous

chair and secured her restraints. The chair was heavier than it looked,

she couldn't move it despite her most valiant struggles.

They watched her impassively as she struggled. The one named

Dmitri fondled Kuno's fine long sword. Their nonchalance was

agonizing, and only reinforced her sense of hopelessness. She slumped

in the chair, resigned to her fate.

" You may proceed, Anatole, " Tarchenko directed.

The man in the rust colored leathers nodded and squeezed a little

of the clear solution from the syringe to clear it of any air bubbles. He

was terribly thorough, even swabbing her arm with alcohol prior to

inserting the needle. Ice began to flow through her veins, and at once

a metallic taste came to her thickening tongue.

" It won't be a long wait, " Anatole announced.

Ukyo's head began to spin slowly. Her fragile equilibrium shifted

further off-kilter and sounds came in distorted waves. Stravinsky was

now a tortured drone in her ears, but it was the only thing she could

register with her captors remaining silent.

She wanted to scream again, but she couldn't remember how.

Nabiki's blood ran cold at Ukyo's first screams of terror. She didn't

want to know what it was that had made her scream, but at the same

time her curiosity was overwhelming. She could hear the sounds of her

struggle, the grunts of exertion from the men as they secured her to the

chair. She could hear the straps and buckles snapping into place.

"Oh gods..." Nabiki pleaded in a hushed whisper. Her eyes stung

with tears at the thought of what was waiting for Ukyo. What was

waiting for herself.

Kuno closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"Disgusting cowards," he grunted. "That they should stoop to such

base means upon fair Ukyo only stokes my hatred of them."

Nabiki looked around the tiny attic yet again for something they

could use to escape. There was nothing. Nothing but themselves.

"What are we going to do?" She asked plaintively.

Kuno kept his eyes closed. Nabiki could see his jawline tighten

and nearly feel the tension in his body.

"I swear this oath with my very life: I shall visit upon them tenfold

that which they inflict upon fair Ukyo, and twentyfold that which they

do to you, Nabiki Tendo."

" Make this as dramatic as possible, Anatole, for the benefit of the

others upstairs. I do not think that this one will be able to tell us much,

but her performance will perhaps loosen the other woman's tongue, "

Tarchenko said evenly.

" Yes, Comrade Tarchenko. " Anatole replied. He checked Ukyo's

pulse and respirations. Satisfied, he examined her motor reflexes and

her pupil dilation.

" She is ready, " Anatole declared.

" Proceed, " Tarchenko ordered.

Anatole moved in close to Ukyo's bloodshot eyes. They could hardly

track him as he moved side to side in front of her.

" I'm employing an agent that renders the subject extremely vulnerable

to suggestion. Many extremes of sensory input may be imposed with little

stimulation. " He began as if he was back in Moscow instructing KGB

recruits. Tarchenko found the subject of torture distasteful, and Anatole's

clinical distancing of himself from it appalling, but let him continue.

They had an audience upstairs, and the audience was listening.

He pulled a cigarette lighter from his jacket pocket.

" For example... "

He held the flame at least a foot from Ukyo's bare arm. Her cloudy

eyes watched it intently. Her lips pursed as if to say something.

"This flame is very hot," he informed her in Japanese. "So hot that

it is burning you right this moment."

Ukyo stiffened in the chair. She shut her eyes tight and tried not

to make a sound. A strangled whimper escaped her lips nonetheless.

"It is growing hotter and hotter," Anatole said in a calm even voice.

"It is so hot that you can feel your skin blistering. Your skin is burning."

Ukyo stifled another scream. Tarchenko watched in horrified fascination

as blisters appeared on her arm.

" The power of suggestion is an amazing thing, " Anatole said,

and snuffed the lighter with a click of the lid. "The heat is gone," he

said to her, and she relaxed just a bit.

"What do you want to know?" Ukyo asked. She would tell them

anything to get this over with. She knew death awaited her at the end

of the interview, but death was a release from torture.

Anatole chuckled. "I have no questions for you yet."

Ukyo let out a single sob and steeled herself for what would come

next. The pain had focused her inner conscious mind even if her body

wasn't responding like she wished.

Anatole studied her for a moment. " Unfortunately, endorphins

and adrenaline will begin to block out the effects of the drug, but as

they break down in the body she will return to her suggestive state. I

can give her an additional dose to counter these negative effects, but

her body mass is low and I cannot give her much more. We may have

to wait a few minutes before proceeding. "

" We have the time, " Tarchenko informed him. " In any event

the longer this session lasts, the shorter the next one will be. "

What are they doing to her?! Nabiki pleaded in her mind.

What do they want from us?

Kuno's silence was almost as terrible as Ukyo's cries. The kendoist

hadn't moved a muscle since he made his oath.

I might just go insane if I have to listen to this any more, she

thought bitterly.

"The needles are gone," Anatole said in that calm measured voice.

Ukyo ceased thrashing in her chair. Tiny beads of red dotted her

arms and face where her sweat glands had literally passed blood. The

effect of passing blood had also made her skin hypersensitive, and

even the motion of air across her was agonizing.

Anatole wished to demonstrate this point to the others. He touched

her cheek lightly with his finger tip. She recoiled as if she had been

slapped.

" Do you wish to begin the interrogation, or shall I continue? "

He asked. He had just about run out of techniques he wished to

demonstrate in the last hour. Her stamina was remarkable, he'd give

her that at least.

" How long does the drug last? " Tarchenko asked. He had listened

to Nabiki cry out for them to show Ukyo mercy for the last ten minutes.

He was certain she was aware of what awaited her when her time came, but

he also wanted to build up the psychological attack to its utmost before

he started on her.

" The drug's effects should be wearing off, but at this point the

subject has been so conditioned by trauma that the drugs are in fact

no longer necessary to produce results, " Anatole explained.

" Very well, begin the interrogation, but prompt her to scream

every now and then for the sake of our two remaining subjects, "

Tarchenko directed.

The silence was the worst part.

Nabiki hadn't heard anything for at least ten minutes, only the

scratchy sound of Stravinsky playing on a phonograph somewhere

below.

When Ukyo screamed in agony, it was almost a relief.

"It is time," Kuno whispered.

The sounds of heavy footsteps on the stairs brought her heart up

into her throat. For a guilty moment she found herself wishing that

Kuno would be next. The door opened, and Fyodor was there glowering

evilly for them. Misha and Dmitri stepped forward to collect Nabiki.

"No!" she cried. "I'll talk, I swear it!"

"You'll sing sweetly enough," Fyodor menaced.

Kuno uttered a growl so low and guttural that they missed it for

what it was.

Misha took hold of Nabiki while Dmitri removed her handcuffs.

They would need her uncuffed in order to strap her into the chair.

She thrashed as soundly as Ukyo had, to the same effect.

Even as Nabiki alternately pleaded with and cursed them, the

sound of Kuno snapping his manacles from behind his back was like

a gunshot.

Dmitri stopped cold, not believing his eyes. Kuno brought both

hands down upon the man's collar bones with crushing force. The

man made a strangled cry before dropping to his knees.

Kuno wasted no time. He took back his sword from Dmitri's side

and unsheathed it in a flash of cold light. Misha was cut down in an

instant, screaming more in surprise than in pain. Blood flowed freely

from the diagonal slash that nearly halved him. He died with that part

agonal, part stupefied countenance forever graven on his face.

"Feel the wrath of Blue Thunder!" Kuno cried at the top of his

lungs.

Fyodor was thrown off-balance by little Nabiki, who hadn't grown

up in a martial arts dojo and not learned something about hand to hand.

The big Ukrainian stumbled down the stairs with Kuno hot after him.

The sounds of rifle bolts being jacked into place mingled with the cries

of surprise below.

Fyodor threw himself over the banister in time to avoid a burst of

Kalashnikov fire from one of the thugs. He landed badly and was knocked

unconscious. 5.45mm jacketed-lead hollowpoints chewed into the walls,

spitting sawdust and paint chips into Kuno's face as he reached the top

of the landing. He leaped down the stairs undaunted, his sword glittering.

The thug caught a belly full of tempered steel a moment later, and

then all hell really broke loose.

Tarchenko was jumping up and over his chair to reach the kitchen.

He kept his Makarov 7.65mm pistol in his coat pocket there. Anatole was

frozen in mid-decision. The prepared syrette that would mercifully

end Ukyo's life was hanging in his limp hand. Ukyo was unconscious

in the chair. The roar of the mortally wounded thug's Kalashnikov

filled the blood-stained air as he burned the remainder of the magazine

into the ceiling.

The second thug maneuvered around Anatole for a clear shot at

Kuno. He shouted a warning and fired a short burst to get their

attention. Nabiki grabbed a poker from the fireplace and threw it at

the thug.

"Look out, Kuno-baby!" She cried.

Her cast succeeded in spoiling the man's aim.

Kuno was all grace and form. He maneuvered his blade past the

thug's guard with lightning speed, taking the man's hands off in one

stroke. The man's cry pierced the ultrasonic. More of the red red

krovy filled the scream rent air. Even as he removed the thug's hands

he was spinning about to deliver the stroke he had been visualizing for

the last hour of Ukyo's torture.

Anatole had only just broken free of the paralysis that gripped him.

He moved the syrette towards Ukyo's arm.

"Hold, coward!" Kuno cried.

Anatole froze again.

Kuno raised his blade high overhead.

"I visit my wrath upon thee!" Kuno bellowed. "My oath fulfilled!

THE HUNDRED BLOWS!!!"

He brought down his sword in a flash of strokes so fast as to be a

glitter of cold light. Wound upon wound opened in Anatole's flesh, too

fast for blood to spurt there came another rent. The air itself was

charged with Kuno's fury, and Nabiki staggered backwards witnessing

the ferocity of his attack.

What was once Anatole Kamarov collapsed in upon itself and fell

with a horrible wet sound to pool upon the plastic sheet on the floor.

Kuno looked about the room. The only sounds in the room were

Nabiki's panting breaths and the liquid noises coming from Anatole's

remains. The man whose hands he had removed had collapsed and

died of hypovolemic shock within seconds of his maiming. Stravinsky

had stopped playing when Tarchenko made his hasty escape; having

knocked the turntable over in his exodus.

He looked over his shoulder to see if Nabiki was unharmed.

"Nabiki Tendo? Art thou whole?" he asked her.

She tried to collect herself against the violence she had been party

to. It was too much. Without a word she threw herself into Kuno's

arms and wept.

Kuno put an arm about her and looked stoically out of the dacha's

large front window. Nabiki wept for a little while. Kuno remained silent,

having returned his gaze to Ukyo.

"Nabiki, stay thy tears for another time. We must look to Ukyo,"

he said calmly.

Nabiki shuddered once in his cool embrace and wiped away her

tears. She took a stuttering breath and let it out in a rush.

"I'm sorry, Kuno... You're right," she managed.

"There is no need to apologize, Nabiki Tendo. Your courage has

spoken for itself in our victory this day."

Nabiki nodded and moved away from him. Taking care to avert

her gaze from Anatole's grisly remains, she set about removing Ukyo's

bonds. The young woman was alive, and aside from some burns on

her arm and a smear of blood tinctured sweat on her skin she was

unharmed. Most of Anatole's work was done in the victim's mind.

"We should find her a doctor," Nabiki said to Kuno. "She's alive,

but we don't know what they've done to her."

"Finding a leech sympathetic to our plight in this hinterland may

be perilous of itself," Kuno observed. "But in truth we cannot remain

here. There is one member of this evil coven that yet lives. I saw him

flee like the base coward he is during our melee."

Kuno then took Ukyo gently into his arms and carried her to the

door. Nabiki scrounged around for their few possessions and ended

up pocketing a 7.65mm semiautomatic from one of the slain. She

didn't have a clue how to use it, but if necessary she could bluff.

They scrambled down the steps of the dacha to the grassy hillside.

Nabiki hadn't found any keys to the vehicles and didn't feel up to the

kind of search through the dead to find them. They would travel on

foot. No one harassed them as they fled. In fact the closest dacha was

at least six kilometers away.

"Do you know where we are going?" Kuno asked.

Nabiki shrugged. "They were speaking Russian," she began. "I

think we're in Russia, maybe the Ukraine, I don't know. I say we head

west for now. If we can reach a town, maybe we can call for help. I

have my long distance card and a credit card."

"I do not feel the authorities will be sympathetic to our plight. We

must take pains to avoid them," Kuno said.

"I think I agree, but what else can we do?"

"First we must delay pursuit," Kuno said. He slashed every vehicle

tire with his sword. Then he cut down what seemed to be a telephone

wire.

"If Fortune favors us, we should have gained a few hours grace

from pursuit," he said when he had finished.

They started off down the hill. Tarchenko watched them go from

the shelter of a copse of trees. He held his Tokarev at the ready, but

knew that he had no hope of hitting them from such a distance.

He also had no illusions about his chances of confronting them

successfully. He was no marksman. He had managed to avoid mandatory

conscription in the Red Army by virtue of his family's influence.

Besides, what good was a little pistol against a swordsman who

slaughtered men armed with automatic rifles?

End of Part Three


	4. Chapter 4

-Chasing the Wind-

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man

Fission Park stumbling into the middle of a scientific investigation of 'magnetic

disturbances', Ranma and Akane have their ki's thrown out of balance.

This causes them to suffer from strange nightmares, and they cannot sleep

without staying close to the other.

Hiro Ohata, now working for the scientists, learns of their predicament

and sends them on a trip to London, England to see if anything can be

done to help. The scientists are treated to an inadvertent demonstration

of Ranma's curse instead.

Ukyo, Nabiki, and Kuno are abducted by rivals of the scientists; a

Russian team led by a Doctor Casimir. They are secreted out of Japan

and taken to an unknown place. Ukyo is tortured and interrogated by

Casimir's assistant Ivan Tarchenko.

Kuno breaks free from his bonds and goes berserk on his captors. He

slaughters most of them and sends Tarchenko fleeing. Kuno and Nabiki

then take the unconscious Ukyo and escape from the dacha where they

were held.

Part Four:

Nocturnes

Chapter One

Ranma smoothed a little more shaving cream on his face and looked

into the mirror. He held the razor up to his face and drew it across the skin.

Akane came into the bathroom and regarded him with a bemused smile.

"Don't cut yourself," she advised.

"Owww!!!" He cried. A little red welled up on his chin, staining the

white foam.

She laughed at him.

He turned around and gave her a scowl.

"You just had to jinx me, didn't you!" He growled.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "What makes you think you have

anything to be shaving anyway?" She accused.

He turned back to the mirror and dabbled at the cut with a cloth.

"I have just enough of a beard to look bad if I don't shave it."

"What's that? Three, four hairs?"

He dabbled at the cut again, which began to sting as the foam touched

it. "Look, if you don't have anything important to say, than just leave me

the hell alone!"

"Does it have to be important?" She asked coyly.

He scowled again and brought the razor up to his face for another try.

"Yes," he replied. He carefully moved the blade across his chin and

throat.

"Then never mind," she said, and left him to his business.

He shook his head in frustration and then wiped away the remainder of

the foam. He splashed a little of the aftershave Kasumi had packed for him

into his hand. Then he slapped it against his face.

"AAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

Akane popped her head back into the bathroom as he screwed up his

face in agony and danced around with fists clenched tight.

"I was going to warn you about that, but I guess it didn't seem very

important." She told him, and then began laughing loudly at him. She

ducked back behind the door frame as he threw his towel at her, and

was gone.

Jeez! What the hell does she think she's doing barging in like that

anyway? If I tried that on her she'd slap the snot out of me and call me a

pervert or something!

The burning passed in a few moments, throbbing only where his face

was cut. At least he had stopped bleeding. Upon closer inspection he

found the cut wasn't very big.

I gotta do this for the rest of my life? He thought glumly. I'm

lucky I didn't decapitate myself. Either that or I grow a decent beard some

day and never shave again.

He stepped out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. Akane had left

his door open, and he went to close it. He could hear her humming

tunelessly in the room next to his. The faintest touch of perfume tickled his

nose, and he sighed suddenly at the thought of her.

Man o' man, this isn't at all what I thought it'd be like...

He closed the door and changed into a smart looking white shirt and

black trousers. Nabiki had found just the right shade of red for his bow tie

and a sash to match. He set the sash in place and then started on the tie.

Unfortunately he had no idea how to tie the thing.

He struggled with the cursed thing for a good twenty minutes before

giving up.

He put on a short black jacket cut bolero style and opened the door.

Maybe Akane knows how to tie it. Girls just seem to know these

things.

He walked out into the hall. Akane was still humming to herself. He

knocked at the door.

" Just a moment, " Akane responded in English.

"It's me," Ranma said. "Can I come in?"

There was a long silence.

"Hello?" He asked.

The door opened. Akane was wearing one of the gowns she and

Nabiki had found on the Ginza. It was cream and gold and oh so elegant.

Her neckline was a little more daring than he would have expected from

her, showing the slightest hint of cleavage. Her bare shoulders were

accentuated by elbow length gloves. She had teased the hair about her

ears into gorgeous little wisps of blue-black.

He stopped short and just stared for a moment.

Her eyes twinkled in a smile as she drank in his reaction to her.

"What do you need?" She asked him cheerfully.

"Uhhhhh..." He replied.

She looked him over. Everything seems all right... She noticed

what was wrong then as he continued to stare.

"Who taught you how to tie that bow?" She asked.

"Uhh? Oh yeah!" He said, starting back to reality. "Could you help me

with this thing? I knew I should have settled for a clip-on, but Nabiki

wouldn't stand for it."

She clicked her tongue once and motioned for him to come inside.

He did so, and she drew him in close. Her perfume was as intoxicating

as her proximity. Her hands twisted at the bow, pulling and primping at it

until it acceded to her demands.

The hardest part for Ranma was keeping his eyes from her bosom.

She tugged the bow tighter about his neck and he lifted his chin to the

ceiling, flushing slightly as if he'd been caught in the act.

"Keep your eyes level so I can get this straight," she told him. She paid

no attention to his flush.

He lowered his head a little and she tugged again in a different direction.

"That's a little better, but whatever you did before has made it a little

crooked," she said at length. She moved him back to arm's distance to get

a more complete look at him.

"You really look sharp Ranma," she declared proudly. "Crooked tie

and all."

"I feel like a penguin," he replied.

"Never mind that," she said. She stepped back and twirled around for

him. "What do you think of this?"

"Be honest?" He asked.

"Brutally, I can take it." She replied with a laugh.

"You look all right," he said off-handedly in his best dead-pan voice. He

was trying his best to sound bored.

"What?! Just 'all right'?" She shot back in surprise. "I saw that look you

gave me when I opened the door -you were spellbound!"

He shook his head.

"Then what was it?" She demanded.

"Jet lag," he yawned.

There was that characteristic snapping sound from inside her head.

"Oooohhhh!!! RANMA YOU ARE SUCH A JERK!!!"

She picked up a heavy upholstered chair. He bolted for the door.

"Get back here and take your medicine!" She yelled furiously.

"See you at dinner Akane!" He replied and ducked out of the room.

"Vengeance is mine!" He cackled.

Akane set the chair down with a thud. She smoothed out her dress and

touched up her hair. A wicked grin creased her pretty face.

"We shall see, Ranma Saotome. You still have to sleep tonight, and I

have to be there..."

Ranma hadn't run far when Hiro Ohata came up the stairs to get them.

He was wearing a black tuxedo with tails, black tie, sash, and carried a top

hat. White gloves adorned his hands.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hiro asked him.

Ranma stopped short, and cast a quick glance over his shoulder to see

if Akane was in pursuit. She wasn't, and he began to breathe easier.

"Dinner, I thought." He replied. "Nice tux by the way."

"Never mind that, where's Akane?"

Ranma looked over his shoulder again. "Hopefully she's still in her

room."

"And you aren't with her?"

"She's trying to drop a chair on my head!" Ranma exclaimed. "Would

you stick around?"

"She's your fianc饬 you're supposed to be with her," Hiro huffed.

"Even if she is trying to drop a chair on your head. You probably

deserve it anyways!"

Ranma threw up his hands. "Oh great, now you're on her side?

Thanks a lot buddy!"

Hiro caught him by the arm and started dragging him back to Akane's

room. "This is for your own good, Saotome. Kiss and make up, and let's

go. Tonight we dine by the banks of the Thames."

"We aren't eating here?"

"The Professor wants to dine out this evening. Tomorrow night we set

out for our next, ah, 'boojib hunt'. Whatever that means."

They stopped outside Akane's door.

Hiro rapped lightly upon the heavy oak. "Akane-chan? Are you in

there?"

"Is that you Hiro?" Came the response.

"In the flesh," Hiro said.

"Is Ranma out there?"

Hiro looked at him; he was busy shaking his head 'no'.

"Yes he is," Hiro said with a smirk. "He has something he wants to

tell you."

"Why do you do this to me?" Ranma hissed.

"Like I said, it's for your own good." Hiro hissed back.

The door opened. Akane stepped out with a gracious smile for Hiro,

and a malicious grin for Ranma.

"Words fail to compare..." Hiro gasped as he beheld her.

She curtsied for him and turned to Ranma.

"Yes Ranma?"

Ranma took a step back.

"Uhhh... You, um, well..." He stumbled.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes...?"

He worked at his bow tie nervously. "What I was gonna say was that

you, well, you know, how you look and all..."

"And how do I look?" She was eating this up, and it was all Hiro could

do to keep from laughing.

His voice lowered a bit. "You look beautiful."

Akane leaned forward, cupping a hand to her ear. "What was that? I

wasn't sure I heard that right."

Ranma cleared his throat. "You look beautiful," he repeated a little

louder.

Her eyes sparkled. "You really mean it?"

Why do girls ask questions like that?

He found a little more of his voice. "Of course I mean it."

She offered him her arm. He took it hesitantly at first, then stepped up to

her side when she didn't body slam him. She smiled warmly at him and all

seemed forgiven.

Or was it? Akane can really hold a grudge.

Hiro popped his top hat atop his head, and squared it away.

"Much better," he declared of them. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

You look like two lovers in springtime. So follow me my dears, the

Professor awaits us below, and I must fetch the Rolls."

He started down the stairs at a cheery gait. Ranma and Akane followed

along behind.

"I was just teasing you," she whispered to him. "It was a joke."

"Tearing open my face with a razor wasn't very funny."

"You act like you were mortally wounded or something. I can't even

see where you did it."

"That's because the aftershave closed it right up." He winced at the

thought.

"That was your own fault," she countered. "You should have known

better."

"I was a little distracted by someone."

They reached the bottom of the stairs. Professor McFogg was standing

in the foyer smoking his pipe and studying the sky outside the windows.

He turned around when he heard them talking quietly.

" Ah, what a fine couple you make! " He observed. " It will only take

Hiro a few moments to bring the car about. In the meantime, how are we

feeling? "

They had both taken short naps after their initial battery of tests. They

had been given thorough physical exams, had blood drawn, provided urine

samples, and answered thousands of questions from several doctors and

psychologists. They were both worn a little thin.

" Oh we're fine, " Akane answered for them.

" Splendid, " McFogg said. " I hope you both have hearty appetites

for this evening. "

Akane turned her head to Ranma. " Don't worry about him, he's a

bottomless pit. "

Ranma rolled his eyes. "You should talk," he said quietly.

Akane elbowed him in the ribs as McFogg looked away for a moment.

The Silver Ghost rolled up into the driveway. McFogg opened the door

for Akane and Ranma and then followed them out. A servant took a few

instructions from McFogg as he left.

Hiro was playing chauffeur. He opened the door of the Rolls Royce for

them. Akane stepped in first, then Ranma and lastly McFogg. Hiro closed

the door behind them and returned to his place behind the wheel.

They drove for an hour through the countryside, eventually reaching

the river Thames. A riverside Inn just outside of Windsor was their

destination. The late spring sun still had an hour left before twilight when

they left the car with the valet.

Professor McFogg was apparently a regular at the Stratford Inn. They

were whisked to an outside table that faced along the south bank of the

Thames. A few boats were out upon the calm waters, enjoying the

remaining sunshine even though the air had begun to chill with the

quickening breeze.

They enjoyed slices of apples and cheese with chilled glasses of

Chardonnay. Akane discovered that she liked the cool crisp wine; having

no taste for sake whatsoever. She drank down her glass and cajoled

Ranma into drinking just a little himself.

"Don't go getting drunk on me," Ranma warned her as he sipped from

his glass.

"Don't worry about me," she returned.

"I just don't want to have to carry you out of here."

McFogg lifted his glass to them.

" I know it's only been a day, but how do you like England? " He

asked them jovially.

" I'm having a good time, " Akane replied as jovially. The wine was

giving her new found energy. " I thank you for bringing us! Aside from

our little problem, it's almost like a vacation. "

McFogg's eyes gleamed for a minute. " You like to travel, do you

Akane? "

" Well...This is really the first time I've ever been away on a vacation.

There was this time I went to China, but I wouldn't exactly call it fun. "

Something to do with being kidnapped, probably.

" And you, Ranma? " he asked.

" Touring around is kinda fun. It just depends on who you travel with

I guess. " I don't recommend spending ten years of your life traveling

with my old man.

McFogg tapped his hand on the table. " I am glad you brought this up.

I will be leaving tomorrow evening on the next leg of our little search.

Fortunately the next predicted location isn't very far. Would you like

to accompany me? "

Ranma cleared his throat. " Um, would that affect the tests we're

supposed to be taking? "

Akane nudged him under the table.

" We'd love to! " She replied.

Professor McFogg chuckled. " It wouldn't affect the tests at all. Hiro

can have you in Cambridge by nine o'clock tomorrow and have you back

by tea. We won't leave until after supper. "

" Then we accept. " She looked at him sternly. "Right, Ranma?"

Ranma nodded and downed his glass of wine.

" Splendid! " McFogg said, truly pleased.

" Maybe you two could stand in the middle of the next event and it'll

cure you, " Hiro suggested.

" Is that possible? " Ranma asked.

" It is possible, but it's not something I could guarantee, " McFogg

replied.

" I'm willing to give it a shot. " Ranma said.

Their entr饳 came; hearty cuts of prime rib and simmered vegetables

with brown rice. They enjoyed their meals with fresh baked bread and

honeyed butter. They also drank another three bottles of wine between

them. The concept of eating with silverware versus chopsticks took a little

getting used to, but Ranma and Akane managed with polite tips from Hiro

and the Professor.

They were finishing supper as the last rays of the sun faded in the

west. Ranma noticed that the skies weren't as sanguine as they were in

Japan. The boats were all safely moored, and the lights of downtown

London on the opposite bank now glittered on the darkening waters of

the Thames.

Well dressed late evening diners now filled every table and the place

was alive with voices and the clinking of silverware on fine Dresden china.

Waitresses lit large lamps set on wrought iron poles around the outside

tables. The lamps burned a sweet lilac scented oil and filled the Stratford

Inn with a cheery light.

" I like to take my supper here early, " McFogg explained to them.

" That way I can smoke my pipe and enjoy the crowds. "

He puffed on his pipe to emphasize his point.

Dessert came shortly thereafter; generous slabs of chocolate cake with

ice cream. Ranma accepted that his training regimen was going straight to

hell, and finished his portion with abandon. Akane didn't need any

prompting either. Her cheeks were flushed with the wine and she was a

little more effervescent than at the beginning of the meal.

Ranma was a little buzzed himself. Only Hiro and the Professor

seemed unfazed. He knew how much Hiro could drink from personal

experience, and figured McFogg for a similar tolerance to wine.

He looked with a little concern for Akane. He had never seen her

drunk before, and so what would come of it was anybody's guess. I

just hope she isn't a violent drunk.

As the coffee was served, Ranma looked about the Inn.

Anazali was sitting at a table only two away from their own. She

looked into his eyes with her own grey-green and winked at him. Her

skin shone in that peculiar oil on water glow by the lamp light. Her

pearlescent white silk evening gown only accented her peculiar

complexion.

He quickly returned his attention to his own table. Akane was carrying

on an animated conversation with the Professor about the places he had

been in his travels. Hiro was scanning the crowds as well, no doubt as part

of his capacity as the Professor's bodyguard. Just once during the meal

Ranma had caught sight of Hiro's Sig underneath the tuxedo jacket.

He looked back to Anazali. She was still sitting there, drinking wine

with an older gentleman and laughing at his jokes. She didn't look back

at him.

Hiro nudged him.

"What's up?" He asked in a quiet voice.

Ranma started for a second. "It's probably just the wine," he replied.

"What is?" Hiro pressed.

Ranma leaned his head in Anazali's direction.

"That woman over there in the white gown."

Hiro made a casual scan of the area and laughed as if Ranma had said

something funny. Akane and McFogg paid him no mind and went on with

their conversation.

"I see her. She's pretty all right."

"That's not what I mean," Ranma corrected. "I've seen her before."

"Oh? When?"

"On the plane from Los Angeles to London."

Hiro clicked his tongue. "Interesting...You realize this is probably just

a coincidence of course."

"I don't know," Ranma said. He looked back at Anazali again, she was

still paying attention to her escort. "There's something strange about her,

and it's not just her weird skin either."

Hiro was sipping water by this point, having set his wine glass down

before dessert. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"It's nothing I can nail down. It's just a feeling I have."

"Well don't go telling Clay anything like that, or he'll have you

evaluated for psychic powers."

"Huh?"

"Well Mister Clay is our resident parapsychologist. He's a good

scientist, always very thorough with his research I'm told, but he always

puts the weirdest spin on anything we come across."

"Like?"

"Oh I dunno. Magic, ESP, ghosts and that kind of thing."

Ranma gestured to himself. "What, you don't believe in that stuff?

Look at me, I'm a perfect example of the magic curse in action."

Hiro shrugged. "I guess you?re right. I still remember that day in boot

camp when it first rained. I thought I was losing my mind when I saw you

and Ryoga change."

Akane looked over at them then.

"What was that about Ryoga?" She asked.

Ranma kicked Hiro in the shin beneath the table.

"Oh ah, we were just talking old war stories," Hiro declared. Akane

shrugged and went back to her conversation with the Professor.

"Sorry," Hiro whispered. "I forgot that she doesn't know. Anyway,

about Clay. He's a good guy and all, but because we have him on the

team a few of our backers are getting edgy. They're worried he'll only

bring discredit upon the whole project."

Ranma looked back to Anazali's table. She wasn't there, but her

escort was. He searched about for her.

"Hey, are you listening to a word I've said?" Hiro asked.

"I'm listening," Ranma replied. He saw her by the boat docks. The

outside patio had a short flight of stairs that connected to a wooden quay.

"There she is," he said at once.

"Now what?" Hiro asked.

"I'm going to go talk to her. Keep Akane's attention away from me for

awhile."

Hiro raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"She gets insanely jealous for no reason, and she's just a little drunk.

Who knows what'll happen if she sees me talking to Anazali."

Akane sneezed.

" Bless you my dear, " McFogg offered. " Are you coming down with

a chill? "

Akane looked at Ranma. He smiled for her benefit.

" No. I'm all right, " she replied in slightly slurred English. She took a

sip of water and asked McFogg to continue.

"Anazali, huh? You're on a first name basis?" Hiro asked in a whisper.

"Just shut up about it and do as I ask," Ranma hissed. "I won't be

long."

"Yes Corporal Saotome," Hiro said with a smart-assed grin.

Ranma excused himself under the pretense of visiting the restroom. He

slipped out of sight in the crowds and worked his way around to the other

side of the patio. From there he made his way to the quay.

Anazali was standing there by the water's edge, watching the lights of

the city against the Thames.

"I was wondering when you would get around to visiting me," she said

in Japanese with her back still to him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Why the same as you," she offered. She turned around to face him.

"I'm simply enjoying a late dinner and the cool spring evening air."

"You're not trying to follow me or something?"

Anazali laughed softly, a sound rather pleasant to hear. "Paranoia

doesn't become you, Ranma!" Her voice changed tone, becoming low

and serious. "And if I was, do you think I would tell you?"

He thought about her words for a moment before speaking. "Why

did you leave me so suddenly when we were in the lounge?" He asked

her. "Why couldn't I find you afterwards in the cabin?"

"You must not have looked very hard," she countered. "Or maybe I

didn't wish to be seen."

Ranma wasn't buying this. "What do you want with me?"

She laughed again. "Who said anything about wanting something with

you?" She regarded him with her fiery grey-green eyes. "I admit you're a

handsome fellow, but I do hold vows of betrothal as binding. And you

have a very lovely fianc饡"

"I didn't vow anything," Ranma replied, surprised at himself for being

so uncomfortable with the idea.

She cocked her head at him in surprise.

"Oh? You do not love her?"

"I never said that," he retorted.

"Than you do love her."

"Yes."

She reached out with her hand and touched his cheek. She moved with

such a grace and fluidity that he was too surprised to react. Her fingers

were warm against his flesh.

"Than it amounts to the same thing," she said to him. "The truest love

is trust, and what is trust but a vow never broken."

She let him ponder her words a moment, withdrawing her hand to her

side.

"Your friends are getting ready to leave," she said to him. "Perhaps

you should join them before they start looking for you."

He turned to look back to the patio. Hiro was helping Akane to her feet,

and the Professor was already standing.

When he returned his gaze to Anazali she was gone. Vanished. There

were two ways off the quay: into the water, or past him. He hadn't felt her

slip by him, nor had he heard a splash.

He looked around in confusion.

How the hell did she do that?

Anazali's whispered voice reached his ears. "You won't find a cure at

Maes Howe, but you will be on the right path."

He spun a full circle. The voice sounded so close she could have been

leaning next to him. The quay was deserted save for him.

He returned to the patio. Hiro was helping Akane, who was having a

little trouble standing on her own. The Professor was chatting with an

acquaintance while they waited.

He took Akane from Hiro, who winked at him and started off to

collect the car from the valet. The Professor broke away from his chat

and suggested that they should make for the car. Ranma had no problems

with that idea.

Akane was a little giggly and off balance, not exactly what he was

expecting out of her state, but better that than some belligerent shrew. He

took her arm firmly in his and steadied her out of the Stratford, checking

over his shoulder every now and then for a sign of Anazali. There was

none.

"Oh Ranma," she whispered breathily, so breathily he could smell the

wine. "You're th' best."

"And you're drunk," he retorted. "I warned you."

"Thas' okay," she said with a giggle. "'Cause I luv ya anyway."

She kissed him on the cheek and nearly fell over in the process.

He steadied her as Hiro opened the door for them. The Professor

chuckled something to Hiro, who chuckled in reply. Ranma set Akane

inside the car and sat down beside her.

"She seemed fine until she tried to stand up," Hiro remarked.

"A good Cabernet Sauvignon will do that, Hiro." McFogg explained

with another chuckle.

Ranma failed to see the humor.

Oh man, I hope she doesn't get sick, he thought as she lay her

head in his lap.

The Silver Ghost took them towards Aldershot, and home. The ride

was quiet with Akane drowsing in Ranma's lap. Hiro and McFogg

traded various anecdotes concerning intoxication, but soon fell to silence

along the narrow winding road that led to the former airfield.

They finally reached the estate just before midnight. Akane was a little

more alert, and showed some sign of sobering up. She got out of the car

without assistance, which made Ranma feel a little more at ease.

The Professor bade them goodnight and took his leave of them.

Hiro looked at the two. Akane seemed a little better. Ranma a lot

worse.

"I'll be going to bed now," Akane announced. She started walking

across the foyer to the stairs.

"You okay?" Ranma asked her.

"I'm fine," Akane replied. "The wine just hit me a little faster than I

thought it would. I'm okay now."

"I'll be up in a minute," he said to her. He turned to Hiro. "I'm beat. A

nice soft bed sounds pretty good right now."

"And how. I have to get you two to Cambridge tomorrow morning."

Ranma waved goodnight.

"Hey Ranma?" Hiro asked.

"Yeah?"

"What happened with you and you-know-who?"

"It's too weird to try and explain right now. I'll tell you in the morning."

"I'll remind you if you don't," Hiro said with a grin. "Goodnight,

Ranma."

"Goodnight, Hiro."

Needless to say, Ranma quickly caught up with Akane on the stairs.

He helped her the rest of the way, and together they reached the third

floor. Once again the old question remained.

"Your room or mine?" He asked her.

It took a moment for her to understand what he was asking.

"We'll try my room again," she replied.

He opened the door to her room. Starlight filtered through the window.

The sky was clear and black, the moon not due to rise for another four

hours. The meadow was still and dark beneath him.

Akane began to remove her gown. Ranma decided he should probably

step out onto the balcony for a few minutes and let her change. He opened

the doors to the balcony and stepped outside. The breeze was cool but

not uncomfortable. The fresh air swept away the last of his own fuzzy

headedness that wine had brought upon him.

He thought about Anazali and her cryptic parting words.

Maes Howe? What's Maes Howe? I won't find a cure there but I'll

be on the path?

He was startled by Akane's hands closing around his chest from

behind.

"You should get out of these you know," she said quietly.

She began to pull his jacket off. He slipped his arms out of the

sleeves for her. She brought her hands around his neck and loosened

his bow-tie. He pulled it the rest of the way off and she went to work

at the buttons of his shirt. He slipped it off and let it fall to the floor.

His heart began to pound in his chest as she unwrapped the sash

from his waist. He turned around and she was standing there in a little

white chemise. Her skin glowed in the starlight.

He found himself taking her close to him. She ran a hand over his

bare chest and nuzzled in against his neck. Her breasts were pressed

firmly against him as she lifted her face to his.

He kissed her lightly at first, then again more deeply. They circled

their arms about each other as she opened her mouth for him. Breaths

they stole when they could, and their hands roamed with abandon.

Of course right before they could get any more serious than heavy

kisses was when the Catalina PBY hurtled thirty feet over the McFogg

estate; it's huge twin supercharged Pratt and Whitney radial engines

howling hell-bent for leather. The whole mansion shook with the

Catalina's passing. The amphibious aircraft wallowed into a shallow

turn and flared out above the meadow runway for a landing.

The mood was utterly shattered. Akane was fairly close to shaking

with fright. Ranma was so frustrated he wanted to scream.

By this point dogs were barking, people yelling, lights coming on,

doors slamming and other sights and sounds of mass confusion as well.

The loudest voice of them all however belonged to Professor Balthazar

McFogg:

"GODDAMN YOU HEIRONYMOUS DURANGO!!! WHEN I SAID MORNING I MEANT

DAMN BLOODY DAYLIGHT!!!"

Chapter Two

"How are you feeling, Ukyo?" Nabiki asked her.

Ukyo shut her eyes against the sunlight again. "I ache everywhere,"

she said. "My skin feels like it's burning. My head feels like one of

Kuno's split melons."

She tried opening her eyes.

"Oww! Everything's so bright."

Nabiki placed a stream cooled rag over Ukyo's brow, what had

once been her gag. She winced as the cloth touched her hypersensitive

skin. Kuno kept silent watch over them, his sword held at low guard.

"Where are we? How did we escape?" Ukyo asked.

"I'm not sure," Nabiki began. "We might be in Russia."

"Russia...?"

Nabiki cast her eyes over to Kuno, who maintained his stoic vigilance.

"Kuno snapped his handcuffs and fought them off with his sword."

Nabiki explained. Fortunately Ukyo had been spared the grisly sight.

"You've been unconscious for about five hours now, I think."

Ukyo tried to open her eyes again, shading them with her hand.

"Really? The last thing I remember is being locked in the attic. Owww...

What did they do to us?"

Nabiki wasn't sure how she should answer.

"They drugged us pretty badly for the trip from Japan I guess. You

must be extra sensitive to whatever they used on us."

"Yeah, I've got a burn on my arm. I don't remember doing that at all...

You say Kuno snapped his handcuffs?"

Nabiki nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty impressive."

Ukyo scanned her surroundings with shaded eyes. They were hidden

in a little copse of trees in a narrow valley. Green hills surrounded them.

A little stream bubbled pleasantly close by.

"So now what are we doing?" She asked.

"For the moment we're running. I'm pretty sure that after our escape

they will want us dead. We're going to head west for now, maybe we can

find a town and get some help."

"So they, whoever they are, are looking for us?"

"If they aren't now, they will be. Kuno didn't exactly frighten them

off with his sword; and they'll probably want revenge."

Ukyo looked at Kuno for a moment in surprise. The kendoist said

nothing, merely stood there meditating upon something.

"What do we have to fight back with, if we have to?"

Nabiki gestured to Kuno. "We have his sword." She withdrew the

little Marakov 7.65mm pistol she had found in the dacha. "And we have

this. Unfortunately I don't have the slightest idea how to use it. I guess

we could bluff if we have to."

Kuno looked over to them, eyeing the pistol.

"Nabiki Tendo, wherever did you find that?" He asked in surprise.

"I found it lying on the floor," Nabiki replied.

"May I see it?" Kuno asked.

Nabiki handed him the pistol. "Sure thing Kuno-baby. You probably

know more about guns than me."

Kuno studied the pistol for a moment. After a moment he discovered

the magazine release and dropped the clip into his hand. He pulled back

the slide, ejecting a round in the process. The slide remained locked back.

He checked the bore clear and sighted down the weapon's muzzle.

"We have but one magazine for this?" He asked.

Nabiki nodded her head. "I didn't want to spend any more time

searching for another one."

Kuno retrieved the ejected round from the ground. He brushed it off

and studied it. It was a crude version of a hydra-shok hollowpoint.

"Then it shall have to be sufficient," he said at length. "With the

element of surprise favoring us I could prevail against opponents

employing firearms. I do not think even I could do so again without

such fortunes. This shall be our equalizer."

He handed the pistol back to Nabiki.

"Hey Kuno-baby, I already said I didn't know how to use this."

"Than I shall instruct you in the ways of firearms," he replied.

He took back the pistol and pointed out each operating component for

her: magazine release, trigger, thumb safety, slide release, hammer. He

squeezed the stray round back into the magazine. Then he slapped the

magazine into the pistol.

"The weapon is now loaded," he began. "But it is not ready to fire.

First you must chamber a round into the breech."

He placed her hands on his and released the slide. The pistol cycled

with a well worn feeling.

"To chamber a round with the slide in the ready position you must

pull it back as far as it will go, then release it. This will chamber a round

and move the hammer to the firing position. From this point all you must

do is aim and squeeze the trigger."

"If you say so. Now how do you unload it?"

Kuno removed the magazine. "The magazine is no longer in the

weapon, but it is still ready to fire with a round in the chamber. You

must carefully pull the slide back to eject the round." He did so. "Check

the bore clear like so." He showed her, and she peered down into the

black empty bore.

He handed her the pistol and made her cycle it several times unloaded

to get a feel for it. Then he handed her the magazine and instructed her to

load it, but not chamber a round.

Nabiki did so. It wasn't as difficult as she thought it would be.

"Not bad," Ukyo observed from the grass.

"Keep the pistol loaded but not chambered," Kuno advised. "We must

only use it when absolutely necessary. However when the time comes,

you must chamber the round and hold the pistol like this."

He put his hands out as if he were holding a pistol. Nabiki did the

same with the Marakov.

"Aim as if the pistol was the end of your finger. Point your weapon as

if you were pointing your finger. Apply an even squeezing pressure on the

trigger until the weapon discharges. The slide will kick back, so take care

to keep the web of your thumb and forefinger low enough on the grip.

When the slide moves forward, you are ready to fire again. If the slide

locks back, you are out of ammunition."

Nabiki practiced squeezing the trigger. "How many shots do I get?"

"Nine," Kuno replied.

"Guess I better make them count."

Kuno pointed to his chest. "Aim for the center of the body. Place

two shots into your target, no more."

Nabiki frowned. "Couldn't I just bluff them?"

"Absolutely not!" Kuno barked. Nabiki flinched at his outburst. His

voice softened as he explained: "The moment you have drawn your

weapon you have committed yourself to use it. Your enemies will assume

you intend to shoot them whether you intend to or not. Therefore they

will try to kill you at any opportunity. Thus you must kill them first."

Nabiki looked down at the pistol in her hands. It seemed very cold

and ugly to her.

"I'm not sure I can do that," she said at length.

Kuno rested a hand upon Nabiki's shoulder.

"The way of a warrior is never easy, Nabiki Tendo. If you wish, I

shall take up the pistol; though it would be foolish to halve the number

of weapons we had at our disposal."

Nabiki returned her gaze to the Marakov.

"I'll keep it," she said grimly. "You'll do us more good swinging your

sword."

Kuno looked sternly into her eyes. "Do not hesitate when the time

comes, Nabiki Tendo. To hesitate would mean your death, and that I

do not desire a whit."

She tried to smile for him. "Neither do I, Kuno-baby."

Kuno seemed satisfied with her resolve. "We must make haste, for

the foe will surely be searching for us now."

Nabiki tucked the pistol into her jeans behind her back. She helped

Ukyo to her feet, and they started off down the valley. Ukyo was still

feeling nauseous, and her eyes were still very light sensitive. The way was

slow for them.

The narrow valley ended abruptly in a steep hillside as the sun neared

the horizon. Nabiki estimated they had traveled about twenty kilometers

that day, and it was either waste time backtracking or try to scale the

slope. Ukyo and Kuno weren't fond of backtracking, as it would only put

them closer to their pursuers.

"Up the slope it is then," Nabiki said. She led the way.

The climb was roughest on Ukyo, who was still weak and nauseous.

Kuno steadied her as she climbed, seeming absolutely tireless. By the top

of the hill he was supporting both Ukyo and Nabiki.

The sun was just dipping behind a range of distant mountains in the

west. Below them were more rolling hills and great expanses of forest.

There were no signs of civilization; not a road, house, or anything to be

seen.

"I'd kill for a map right now," Nabiki said tiredly.

"We shall find our way in time," Kuno offered. "For now let us seek

shelter for the night and rest ourselves. Fair Ukyo wanes like the setting

sun."

Ukyo was bent double at the knees panting for breath.

"Boy, whatever they gave me sure took the wind from my sails," she

huffed in exhaustion. "Sorry about this."

"It's not your fault Ukyo," Nabiki soothed. "Hey, it's all down hill from

here."

Ukyo flashed them both a 'V' with her fingers and started down the hill.

Nabiki followed after her, and Kuno walked drag. He looked over his

shoulder upon occasion to spot any pursuers. There was no sign.

Ivan Mikhailyvich Tarchenko returned to the dacha after Kuno,

Nabiki, and Ukyo had fled. The sights within were beyond even his grim

expectations. After stepping gingerly through the carnage (especially the

bloody mess that was Anatole), he discovered Dmitri wailing upstairs with

two broken collarbones, and he found Fyodor unconscious on the floor.

He left Fyodor to look after Dmitri until he could send help for them. In

the meantime he had other concerns. Like finding his three captives and

killing them. The vehicles were all disabled, and the phone line was cut.

He would have to go on foot.

He tried thinking back to that moment when they'd escaped him. He

was certain that he'd seen the man still wearing the bracelets of his

handcuffs as he attacked with his sword. That meant he had broken the

chain from behind his back.

Clearly I underestimated them, he observed grimly. That is

not a mistake I will make twice.

He reached the airfield after a good walk through the woods.

At the airfield he dispatched a team of four men, heavily armed, to

take a helicopter and search for the three fugitives. There wasn't much

fuel to spare for the helicopter, but he felt the expenditure was necessary.

The team's instructions were clear: find the fugitives and kill them.

Return with their remains.

He made a few phone calls as well. The local authorities were alerted

to three foreign nationals of Japanese origin, who were engaged in acts

of espionage against the Ukraine. The three were to be considered armed

and extremely dangerous. A call went to nearby Odessa to alert the

maritime patrols, what were once part of the KGB directorate, and thus

loyal to him. They would keep the three from escaping by boat across

the Black Sea into Turkey or perhaps Romania.

The last call he made to Doctor Casimir, who was in St. Petersburg

working on a corrected solution for their model.

"Ah Vanya, how is Odessa?" Casimir asked cordially.

"Odessa is the same as always, Doctor."

"You must have interesting news to be calling me in St. Petersburg,"

Casimir observed.

"Yes Doctor. I may have a very good lead on McFogg's activities."

There was a pause.

"Go on," Casimir said finally.

"Professor McFogg may have two Wayfinders in his company."

"What?!"

"Yes Doctor, two Wayfinders. They inadvertently exposed two youths

to the nexus flux as it opened."

"So the next event was Tokyo..." Casimir said quietly. "Go on

about these Wayfinders, Vanya."

"The two appeared fine upon initial examination, however I

discovered that they began experiencing precognitive dream states, and

that their essences had been altered by exposure. They are now co-

dependent upon each other for continued well being. Does this sound

familiar Doctor?"

There was another long pause.

"Doctor?" Ivan asked again.

"Yes Vanya, you know it does. Those are exactly the conditions my

father described when he coined the term Wayfinder in 1905."

"The Revolution of 1905, as I recall." Tarchenko added.

"Those were unfortunate times," Casimir replied. "I am only too glad

to have been born after them. 1905 of course was when my father

convinced Nicholas to fund the first search."

"Yes, Doctor. I am well aware of that."

"Well don't keep me in suspense Vanya, where are these two?"

"In London. With Professor McFogg at his estate I'm told. They

seem to think he can 'cure' them of their condition."

"Nonsense," Casimir spat. "Balthazar can no more do that than he

can raise the dead. No, I think I know what he plans to do with them...

He plans to use them to find the end of this merry chase. The Heart of

the World."

"Yes, Doctor. I am inclined to agree. Shall I increase the surveillance

upon McFogg's team?"

"Yes of course. But don't do anything rash, Vanya. I know you are

eager to solve this puzzle, but we must proceed cautiously. We are

dealing with forces beyond our feeble imaginations."

"I understand perfectly Doctor. Good day to you, sir."

"Good day, Vanya."

Ivan Tarchenko hung up the phone and smiled to himself.

Such caution is for weak-willed fools, Doctor. The Heart of the

World cannot be gained by timid action. The Wayfinders are the key,

and they must serve me if they are to be of any use. Now if only I can

tidy up this business Fyodor has left me...

" 'Oh for a muse of fire!' "Kuno cried after their latest failure to get

any of their kindling to burn.

Nabiki threw up her hands in disgust. A child of the city she was, and

such primitive skills were anathema to her.

"I could have sworn I had a lighter in my purse," she said in

frustration. "They must have taken it when they searched our things."

Ukyo was feeling a little better, but not much. She huddled next to

Kuno in the waning twilight. Her green eyes caught the glints of light

from the sparks they showered upon the pile of twigs.

"Hey guys, I know a fire would be great; but couldn't someone use

the light and smoke to find us?" She asked at length. "Besides, it's not

really that cold. It is the end of spring after all."

Kuno pondered this.

"Fair Ukyo is correct," he affirmed. "To risk a fire so close to our

point of flight would be most perilous."

Nabiki remembered the helicopter that had prowled around above

them earlier. They were pretty sure what the helicopter was up to, and

it served to reinforce the idea that the Russians weren't going to allow

them to just slip away. The machine gun hanging out the door was a

dead giveaway on that issue.

"I guess you're right," she concluded. "If it gets too cold we'll just

have to get a little more friendly."

They sat there in silence for awhile. The last fragile light of day was

spent, and darkness came quickly to the woods. Nocturnal animals began

stirring to life around them. Sounds that would have been ignored in

daylight now became penetrating to the very soul of fear.

"I could sure use something to eat," Nabiki declared. Speaking at least

dispelled the immediate fears she felt.

The other two reluctantly agreed. They had plenty of water, having

found another stream of cool clean water, but none of them had eaten

for about two days. Now that they had nothing to do but think, their

stomachs reminded them of their empty status.

"How far do you think we have to travel until we're safe?" Ukyo

asked.

Nabiki shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe if we could find some sign

of civilization we could find out where we are. If we're in western

Russia we could hope to reach Poland maybe. If we're in eastern

Russia than we're probably walking the wrong way. All I know is that

we can't give ourselves up. They want us dead now."

"We cannot persist for long without victuals," Kuno said. "In the

morning we should make every effort to find something edible. Perhaps

Ceres will smile upon us and grant us her bounty."

Ukyo and Nabiki agreed. They didn't have much experience in

identifying edible plants, but they also didn't have much choice. Unless

they got lucky tomorrow and found a village or town, they would have to

survive on their own in the wilderness.

Ukyo yawned wearily and curled up her knees to her chest to sleep.

She lay her head upon Kuno's shoulder and closed her eyes. Kuno said

nothing, but settled in a more comfortable position of seated repose.

Nabiki decided to stay awake for awhile. She didn't like the sounds

of the woods, and if she wasn't expecting the Russians to pounce upon

them, it was a bear or panther or something equally fierce. She paced

nervously for twenty minutes with Kuno watching her idly. Ukyo was

by now asleep, her deep even breaths a comfort to Nabiki, who

continued to worry about the okonomiyaki chef's health.

"Nabiki Tendo, you must conserve your strength. The morrow will

be upon us soon enough, and it is thence that we must expend ourselves."

Kuno said calmly to her as she paced a deeper rut in the ground cover.

She narrowed an eye at him. He bade her join him with his hand.

"Come sit with me Nabiki Tendo. Without adequate shelter I fear

that even this fair spring evening may turn bitter."

Nabiki decided he might be right. In any event she didn't have much

nervous energy left to her. She brushed away a spot on the ground next

to him and sat down.

"Fair Ukyo sleeps, and so must you. I shall maintain the watch for

awhile." He said to her.

Nabiki looked him in the eyes, which were two bright points set

against the darkness of his brow. Starlight and her slowly adjusting

nightvision revealed the high points on his handsome face, which was

stern and stoic.

"Why does she have to be 'Fair Ukyo' while I'm simply 'Nabiki

Tendo'? What's the matter, I'm not 'fair' enough for you?"

Kuno closed his eyes for a moment. "I did not mean to offend," he

apologized. "I deem Ukyo 'fair' because she is possessed of not only of

lovely frame and countenance but innocence as well. I find you lovely to

behold but more worldly."

She wasn't sure if she should take his words as compliment or insult.

But knowing Kuno the way she did, for as long as she had, she decided

he meant no ill by it.

"I'm not as 'worldly' as you might think, Kuno-baby," she replied

sadly.

"Again, I did not mean to offend." He offered. He examined the cold

gleam of his sword in the starlight. "Put these thoughts out of your mind

for awhile and rest. I shall wake you when I cannot continue."

She yawned in agreement, and curled up her legs to her chest as Ukyo

had done. Unlike Ukyo, she kept a little distance apart from him. Without

a word, Kuno put his arm about her and drew her close. She smiled to

herself then, and lay her head upon his shoulder.

Chapter Three

Ranma awoke to find that Akane was already up and about. He

could hear her humming in the bathroom, and the sounds of water

splashing in the tub. He had a sour stomach and dry mouth and

guessed it was the wine.

I didn't think I drank that much, he thought sourly. I didn't

feel drunk.

He threw off the sheets and sat up in bed. His clothes lay in a pile on

the floor next to the open balcony window. The morning breeze was cool

and moist. A haze of fog greyed the sky.

Akane splashed some more water in the tub, and she broke into a song.

It was one from that Zard album she was listening to on the plane ride, he

was certain.

He rubbed at his aching head. I'm glad she doesn't get hangovers.

What does she have to be so happy about anyway?

His thoughts drifted back to last night. How she had come on to him

in the darkness, how close they had come to spending a night far more

intimate than intended. Before the damn airplane buzzed the house

and ruined everything! He sighed regretfully. Blame it on the wine,

'cause I don't think she would have done that sober.

Akane had taken a walk by herself after that. He had resigned

himself to sleeping alone for at least a little while, waking only when

she settled in next to him. Without so much as a 'good-night' she had

gone to sleep.

He got out of bed and gathered up his clothes by the balcony. He

took a look outside. Sure enough the very plane he had damned sat

out on the meadow, shrouded in gloom. It looked like a vintage

propeller driven seaplane, for as much as he knew about such things.

He let himself out of Akane's room, almost stepping into Hiro as

he shut the door behind him.

"Oh ho!" Hiro cried. "There you are. I had a suspicion you were

in there."

"Of course I was," Ranma countered defensively. "If I don't the

nightmares return. Weren't you paying attention yesterday?"

Hiro flashed him a 'V' with his fingers. "Suuuure. Whatever you

say Saotome, I know it's none of my business anyway."

Ranma scratched his head. "What time is it?"

Hiro consulted his watch. "Half past nine."

"We're late!" Ranma cried. "We're supposed to be somewhere

right now!"

Hiro waved him off. "Not to worry. The Professor says we can

send you to Cambridge some other time. I'm here to tell you that brunch

will be served downstairs in the solarium in an hour, and I hope you

like German pancakes."

Ranma scratched his head again. "Where's the solarium?" What's

a solarium?

"It's on the first floor, take a left at the bottom of the stairs, and

go all the way down. It's a big room with a lots of skylights and big

windows. You can't miss it."

Ranma nodded in understanding. "Okay, so what's a German

pancake?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Hiro countered. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah, if we aren't going to Cambridge today, what are we doing?"

"Chasing the wind my friend."

"What?"

"We're going to Maes Howe tonight for the next event. It's a megalithic

site in Scotland, dates back to pre-Roman Celtic times. Clay, Ferguson,

Ames, and some of the others are already there setting up."

Maes Howe...Anazali knew where we would be going. Does that

mean she'll be there watching?

"Great, so how are we getting there?" Ranma asked.

Hiro cracked a grin. "Remember our rude awakening last night?"

Ranma affected a grimace as he recalled. "Yeah..."

"Well it's sitting out on the meadow," Hiro finished. "See you at brunch.

Are you going to tell Akane or should I?"

"I'll do it," Ranma answered. "I think I'm going to work out for a half

hour or so. I need to clear my head."

"Don't be too late," Hiro advised. He walked down the hallway.

"Don't worry about me," Ranma called back to him. Hiro waved a hand

over his shoulder and continued down the hall.

Ranma decided he should fill Akane in on the change in plans. He

knocked briefly on the door and let himself in. She was standing by the

window wearing a yellow bathrobe and drying her hair with a towel.

"Hey Akane," he began.

She turned around to face him. "What is it, Ranma?"

"There's been a little change in plans. We're kinda staying here for the

day."

She nodded once. "That's what I figured. We did sleep in a little late."

"Oh yeah, we're having 'brunch' in an hour. In the solarium. You know

where that is?"

She murmured in the affirmative as she finished drying her hair. She

reached for a brush that sat on a dresser with the towel still draped over

her head.

Ranma decided that he should go. He said as much and turned for the

door.

"Ranma?" She asked haltingly.

He stopped short of the door. "Yeah?"

She pulled the towel from her head, revealing the slightly damp locks of

blue-black hair that fell over her eyes. She brushed her bangs aside and

regarded him with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry about last night," she said.

Ranma scratched the back of his neck. "What's there to be sorry for?"

He returned with a weak smile.

"You know, for the way I acted last night."

"Well, it's, you know...You had a little too much to drink, that's all...

I understand." Are you sorry for making a scene at the Inn or are you

sorry for what happened between us? Arrrgh, I wish I knew what you

were thinking about!

"You do?" She replied.

"I think so." Maybe I don't.

"Okay. Well, I'm going to get changed now," she hinted for him.

He took the hint. "Okay, see you at this 'brunch' or whatever." He

closed the door behind him.

Akane brushed out her hair and thought.

I really am sorry Ranma. I guess I just got cold feet. It's nothing

against you...Oohhh, why couldn't I have told him that instead? Now he

thinks I'm apologizing for getting drunk and making an ass of myself!

Her eye caught a bit of color on the floor. She looked down to find his

bow tie lying there on the freshly waxed wood. I really blew it last

night... She thought as she picked up the scrap of red silk. If only

that airplane hadn't scared me out of my wits!

She set the bow tie down upon the dresser and looked out across the

fog bound meadow. The sun was trying to burn its way through the mist,

and she found a little inspiration in that. With a little luck maybe I'll

get through to him, she thought suddenly. There's always tonight.

Ranma cursed himself once again. Away from Akane for only twenty

minutes and already he had lost his focus. He couldn't keep his breathing

regular, couldn't keep his balance, couldn't even complete his forms

properly.

"How am I supposed to stay in training like this?" He asked himself

aloud. "All that I know how to do is fight, and now I can't even do that!"

He was covered in a sheen of sweat but knew it was all just wasted

effort. He wiped away the salty drops from his brow with a towel and sat

down on the hardwood floor of the Professor's small gym. As he sat and

thought about his condition, Hiro appeared at the door.

"I thought you were working out," Hiro said.

"I was trying to," Ranma replied. "But I'm hopeless."

"Maybe you should train with Akane. At least then your ki would be

balanced."

He thought about that a moment. Sure Akane was not even close to

being his equal in martial arts, but at this point what else could he do?

"I guess we could try it together," he admitted. "I can't see how it

would hurt."

Hiro walked up to him. "I'm here to remind you to tell me about what

happened last night between you and that mystery woman, so spill it."

Ranma took a deep breath before he spoke.

"It's weird. Really weird. I think she's following me."

"How so? I mean, besides showing up at the same restaurant as you."

"She knew about Maes Howe before I did. Even mentioned it by name."

Hiro raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. And she seems to know about my condition. She told me I

wouldn't find a cure at Maes Howe, but that I would be on the right path.

-She told me that after she disappeared into thin air."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me right. She vanished into thin air. There was no way off

that quay but past me, and somehow she just disappeared." He thought

back to last night and the darkened quay.

Happosai can pull stunts like that, does that mean Anazali knows

martial arts?

Hiro gave that some thought. "Well... After being around you for

awhile I think nothing really surprises me anymore." He snapped his fingers

as an idea popped into his head. "I think you're a Weird Magnet."

"A what?"

"Clay's got a scientific sounding term for it, but that's essentially

what you are. Weird things just happen around you. Things like transforming

into a girl when you get wet, having a friend who turns into a pig, that

crazy pig-tail of yours that can't be cut without making your hair grow out

of control, throwing ki blasts around like a game of catch -you get the idea.

Now a vanishing woman? No, I'm not all that surprised. My next question

is, what's her game?"

"I wish I knew. I have a feeling she'll be waiting for us at Maes Howe

though."

"You're probably right. Maybe we should tell the others about this."

"No. Let's keep this quiet for now, I don't think we could do anything

about it anyway."

Hiro gave him a puzzled look. "Okay, so what's your game?"

"Just trust me on this," Ranma replied.

Hiro shrugged his shoulders. "Sure thing Saotome. Just remember who's

got your back."

Ranma offered him his hand. "Thanks Hiro."

Hiro pulled him to his feet. "No problem."

They were a little late for brunch, but McFogg didn't make an issue of

it. Akane, Katy Price, and some man in his early thirties were with him at

the table. Akane was wearing a cheery summer dress. Katy was clad in a

conservative tan suit coat and calf length skirt. The man was wearing a

leather bomber jacket and a black beret set rakishly on his head.

" Ah, here they are now, " McFogg announced as Hiro and Ranma

entered the solarium.

" Lost track of time, " Ranma apologized. He had taken a quick

shower and changed into his Chinese clothes.

McFogg gestured to the man in the bomber jacket. " You haven't

formally met, but I believe you heard him come in last night. This is

Heironymous Durango. Heironymous, this is Ranma Saotome. "

This is the jerk that buzzed the house? Ranma fumed to himself.

" How's it going? " Durango greeted him.

" Just fine, " Ranma managed as politely as he could.

" Please forgive Mister Durango's flippantness if you could please,

Ranma. His thoroughly American lack of sensibilities sometimes wears thin,

but he is of Sterling character. " McFogg said to him.

Durango gulped down a cup of coffee. " Sorry about the fly-by, but

trying to put Bettie's Dare down on dry land in the middle of the night is a

real pain in the ass. You have to come in low and slow and there ain't much

room for error. "

" So what were you doing coming in at night? " Ranma asked, a slight

edge of hostility in his voice.

Durango poured himself another cup of coffee from a silver pot. " Had

to beat the weather getting here. There was a big storm front moving across

the Channel, and I had to get in ahead of it. "

Katy gave him a dry look. " And will we be able to 'beat the weather'

getting out of here tonight? "

Durango ate half a croissant in one bite. " Depends on whether or not

this goddamn fog burns off any time soon. My gear's not quite up to snuff

to be trying IFR. But don't you worry, I'll get you to Scotland. It's just

that the ride might be a little rough. "

Wonderful... Ranma thought glumly.

Nabiki woke up to the first rays of sunlight through the trees that

played along her face. She was curled up with Ukyo, who shivered in her

sleep. Kuno wasn't around.

She rubbed at her cold limbs. Kuno had been right about a bitter night.

She woke Ukyo gently, and the okonomiyaki chef stirred with a sneeze.

"Bless you," Nabiki offered.

"I could sure use it," Ukyo replied. She looked around to the wakening

woods that surrounded them.

"I was hoping this would all be a bad dream and I'd wake up in my bed.

Guess it wasn't though."

Nabiki rose unsteadily to her feet. She was weary and weak with hunger

on this their third day since their abduction. She could only imagine how

Ukyo was feeling.

"Where's Kuno?" Ukyo asked.

"I don't know," Nabiki answered. "He was gone when I woke up."

"You don't think something might have happened to him, do you?"

"No, he can take care of himself."

Ukyo stood up. She stretched out her sore and chilled limbs with a

gasp of discomfort. All at once she realized that she needed to go to the

bathroom.

Nabiki read the look; she had to go too. "I guess we just find a little

spot behind some trees."

When they had finished, they waited for Kuno's return. The kendoist

came back after twenty minutes. He held a small clump of berries in his

hands.

"Breakfast is served m'ladies," he said to them.

"Are they safe?" Ukyo asked.

Nabiki didn't care. She took a few and popped them in her mouth.

"Mmmmmm...Delicious."

Ukyo didn't need any more proof. She ate a few herself and nearly

melted with delight.

"I thought I might whet thy appetites with these that I might persuade

you to join me in a walk. There are several clumps of bushes laden with

such sweet treasures nearby." Kuno said to them.

"Lead on Kuno-baby!" Nabiki cried.

They followed him along what appeared to be a thin wandering trail.

After some time the trail through the trees and thick underbrush opened

up into a little clearing. They could see the purple berries hanging from

several bushes.

The berries were all fat and sweet with juice. Nabiki and Ukyo began

picking them off the branches and eating them as fast as they could. Kuno

however observed some restraint.

"Take care that you do not make yourselves ill. We have had nothing to

eat in several days, and our stomachs are not prepared to go from famine

to feast." He advised.

Nabiki gave him a purple-stained grin. "Kuno-baby, you are a life

saver!"

"It was merely chance that led me here, yet I take it as a sign of the

gods' good fortune smiling upon us." Kuno replied.

"Maybe we can find a town today," Ukyo remarked.

"Perhaps, but we must not tarry here overlong. I overheard the sounds

of that accursed helicopter while you slept."

"Then let's gather up some of these berries to take with us and get

going," Nabiki suggested.

They picked enough berries to fill Nabiki's purse and paid a visit to the

stream they had found yesterday for one last drink of water before they

started walking. Their spirits were higher with the fruit's sugar coursing

through their veins, and they forgot their aches for awhile. By noon they

had reached the edge of the woods and the first of another range of hills.

The sun shone hot upon them as they left the shelter of the trees. Kuno

fairly sweltered in his kendoist's gi, but remained as stoic and silent as he

usually did. Ukyo was starting to lag behind a little. She insisted that she

was all right, but it was obvious that the effects of the Russians' drugs

continued to exact a heavy toll upon her.

They stopped beneath a copse of trees to rest. Kuno kept watch while

Nabiki looked after Ukyo. She was feverish and her pulse was fast and

thready.

"Lie still for awhile Ukyo. We'll rest here for an hour or so." Nabiki told

her.

Ukyo nodded gratefully. "Sorry Nabiki. I'm trying my best, but it's like

I'm drained of all my energy... I feel a little woozy."

She swooned, and Nabiki gasped in panic.

"Ukyo!"

Ukyo tried to sit up. "I'm okay. I'm fine." She insisted.

"No you're not!" Nabiki countered. "Lie down and rest. I'll be right here

for you."

Ukyo smiled weakly and laid her head down upon the sweet smelling

grass.

Kuno offered a brief glance of concern for her before returning his

attentions to the horizon.

"We may have to continue sooner than desired," he announced.

"Ukyo's in no shape to be walking right now," Nabiki returned.

"We may have no choice," Kuno said calmly. "Mine eyes do see a party

of men well armed on the far range of hills. They have our spoor, and will

run us down if we tarry."

Nabiki squinted her eyes at the hills in question. A line of black dots

moved down the slope.

"You can see them from here?" she asked in amazement.

"I can but see only the dark spots of men 'gainst the bright of the hills."

"Then how do you know who they are, or even if they're armed?"

"As one trained in the arts of modern war I recognize the movements of

men thus trained. If they be trained for war then it follows that they be

armed for it as well. They form a skirmish line to keep all traces of our trail

before them."

"How long until they catch up with us?"

Kuno thought a moment. "If their path is sure they may do so even by

sundown. If they lose the way or tarry at our campsite we may have but a

few more hours grace beyond."

Nabiki looked down to Ukyo. She was fitfully asleep, her breaths

coming swift and shallow.

"I think she's really sick, Kuno. She can't travel on her own."

Kuno nodded sagely. "Than I shall carry her if I must."

He stooped to take Ukyo up into his arms, and then set her carefully

over his shoulders. She murmured something incoherent and draped an arm

about his neck. Without another word he began walking back towards the

woods.

"Hey, where are you going? You're headed right for them!" Nabiki

protested.

"If we attempt to cross these naked hills we would be spotted as surely

as we have found our pursuers," he said in reply. "Therefore we must enter

the woods and skirt its boundaries until we may find a path more

concealing."

Nabiki grudgingly followed him back into the forest. They kept to the

trees for several hours before finding a narrow ravine that led them west

again.

Nabiki was amazed at Kuno's stamina. He maintained the hard pace

even while bearing the encumbrance of Ukyo.

"Maybe you should set Ukyo down and rest a few minutes," she had

said to him once.

His reply had taken her aback.

"I shall take my rest when this misadventure has reached its conclusion.

Not before. If I am slain by the end of this, so be it, for I shall take

my rest in the grave."

His tone had been so serious that she hadn't mentioned it again. She

only wished he would save his own strength as he had admonished them

to do. She felt they would need his sword arm again before this was

through.

Chapter Four

Bettie's Dare was a Convair Catalina PBY-5A; a World War II era

amphibious aircraft. She was painted in an old war era Navy scheme of

low visibility greys and blues. Emblazoned on the nose was a likeness of

50's pin-up queen Bettie Page clad in scanty leather and lace, and daring

the observer on with a saucy wiggle of her finger. The name 'Bettie's Dare'

was painted in gold script beneath her likeness.

Heironymous Durango was making his pre-flight inspection when

McFogg, Hiro, Ranma, Akane, and Katy Price approached. The pilot

slammed shut an access hatch and secured it with a flick of his wrist. He

grinned wildly for them and gestured to the plane.

" Hey Professor, how do you like Bettie's new paint scheme? " He

asked McFogg.

The Professor gave the plane a brief inspection. " She almost looks

respectable, " he commented.

" She'd be mighty upset to hear you say that, " Durango sniffed.

" Especially after I went to the trouble of getting Olivia herself to paint

Bettie up on the nose. " He gestured proudly to the artist's signature

beneath the artwork.

" Can we please be going on our way Mister Durango? " Katy huffed.

" It would be nice to get there in time for the event. "

Durango made a face at her. He knocked the back of his hand twice on

the hatch and it spilled open. A thin and gangly man peered out from the

portal with a toothy smile.

" Yeah man? " He asked in a taut voice.

Durango shooed him inside. " Come on D-Day, make a hole for the

passengers. They're getting restless. "

" Sure man, " D-Day replied in that quick and taut voice. He stepped

aside for Durango, who pulled the party's luggage up into the plane. When

he got hold of Katy's bag he made a show of how heavy it was.

" We may need to ditch some weight to get off the ground. I'll keep this

by the door just in case," he said to her.

Katy ignored him and stepped by without a word.

Akane stepped up the boarding ladder next. Durango shifted gears and

was now the epitome of graciousness. He took her hand at the door and led

her aboard.

" Watch your head Miss, " he advised politely.

Akane stepped inside to the main cabin. It was smaller than she had

hoped, but not as cramped as she had feared. Three rows of two seats

occupied the rear of the compartment. In the forward end was a small

living area and two hammocks stowed along the starboard bulkhead. A

small ladder led up to the flight deck. The bulkheads were covered with

Catalina and war-era memorabilia; everything from photos of PBYs and

their aircrews to pilots' caps, a flight jacket festooned with patches, and

various unit insignias.

Hiro came up behind her. He slapped Durango a 'high five' as he

boarded, and the two exchanged knowing grins. He showed Akane to a

seat as she stared in wonder about the cabin.

Professor McFogg came next and took a seat beside Katy. He had a

late edition of the Times folded under his arm, and he began to read it in

silence.

Ranma stepped up the ladder last of all. Durango secured the hatch

behind him. He looked around for a minute as Akane had done.

" Hey Saotome, " Durango called as he clambered forward. " You

and your little lady are welcome up on the flight deck for takeoff. This is

your first time aboard and all. "

Ranma didn't seem thrilled. He looked back to where Akane sat. She

couldn't have been more excited.

He looked back to Durango. " We will be right up, " he replied.

Akane was already out of her seat and taking his arm. "Thank you

Ranma," she said softly to him. "I know how you don't like flying, so I

really appreciate this."

"It's not the flying that bothers me," he countered. "It's landing and

taking off."

They climbed up to the flight deck. The cockpit was mostly as it was

in the heyday of the Catalina PBY, except for several modern

conveniences like the Pulse-Doppler weather radar, solid state radio

navigation equipment, and GPS system hard mounted in various free

spaces. The multipaned canopy was large and covered the entire cockpit.

A large portable stereo system hung from the aft bulkhead.

D-Day was at the Engineer's station checking his gages. He tapped

at them occasionally when they didn't indicate what was expected. Once

satisfied, he licked the tip of his grease pencil and scratched a check mark

on a well worn laminated checklist.

Durango sat in the Pilot's chair reviewing his own checklists. The

instrument lights flicked on as he thumbed several circuit breakers at his

side. The radio squawked in a perturbed British accent at someone.

" Tower's a little restless tonight, " Durango noted.

" Yup, " D-Day agreed.

Ranma and Akane watched them for a few minutes as they completed

their checks.

" Have a seat, " Durango offered them. He showed them the Co-Pilot's

chair. " D-Day doesn't need it just yet. "

" Nope, " D-Day confirmed.

Ranma let Akane take the seat, preferring to stand. She sat down in the

well worn chair and gazed across the vast array of dials, meters, levers, and

switches. There was a small pin-up girl photo taped to the console, but she

didn't make an issue of it.

Durango flipped another series of rocker switches. D-Day called out

various groups of numbers in response. Satisfied, Durango pulled out a

knob on the console and moved a lever forward on the divider panel

between the Pilot and Co-Pilot stations.

" Clear! " He called out of the side window to the men outside.

One gave him a 'thumbs up'.

" Contact! " He cried. He threw a switch.

There was a brief hum, followed by a low whine as the port prop

began to turn. The port engine coughed once, twice, then roared to life

above them with a cloud of heavy smoke and flame from the exhaust

pipes. Akane jumped as the R-1830 supercharged radial piston engine

backfired.

" Damn fuel additives, " Durango muttered.

" Oil pressure coming up. Fuel pressure good. Voltage steady. "

D-Day called from the Engineer's station.

Durango checked the brakes locked and cycled the prop pitch. The

plane seemed to pull towards the left but in reality did not move. He

feathered the prop, and the tension ceased.

D-Day checked his gages. " Number two temps have stabilized. I'm

putting number two generator on the bus. " He twisted a few knobs and

closed a large circuit breaker at his feet. The lights flickered again

and a bell rang for a second as an alarm came in and out

" Ready to start Number One? " He called to D-Day. He set his

choke, mixture, and throttle positions for number one engine.

The noise was almost too much for Ranma to understand a word he

said. Durango secured his open cockpit window, and it abated a little.

D-Day checked his gages and nodded.

" Clear! Contact! " Durango called.

The lights dimmed a little as the starboard engine spluttered and then

roared to life. Akane jumped again, though the smile of excitement on her

face belied any real concern.

" Oil pressure coming up. Fuel pressure good. Voltage steady. "

D-Day called.

" Cycling number one, " Durango announced. He adjusted the

starboard prop's pitch, then feathered it back.

" Number one temps stable. Placing number one generator on the

bus. " D-Day declared. He placed the generator on the bus with a throw

of the circuit breaker.

The Catalina's engine noise was now a steady thrum over their heads.

Durango picked up an apple green headset and dialed his radio to the

Heathrow ATC frequency. He set one headphone against his ear for a

minute, listening to the tower chatter.

When he had a clear moment he placed the microphone close to his

mouth and talked with the tower for a few minutes. He seemed to be

having a hard time with them.

" Is there a problem? " Akane asked innocently.

Durango stopped arguing with the tower. He removed his headphones

and smiled graciously for her benefit.

" Not at all. The tower seems to have misplaced the flight plan

that I forgot to file this morning. "

Akane blinked twice. " Oh. "

" Not a problem, " Durango continued. " I don't need a flight

plan for VFR. "

" Only if the tower buys it, " D-Day mentioned.

" Stop encouraging me D-Day, " Durango muttered.

McFogg's voice called from aft and below. " Is there a problem

Durango? "

" Not at all Professor, the tower's just giving me clearance now! "

Durango called back.

Clearance? Ranma certainly didn't see the headphones anywhere

near Durango?s head at the moment, so who did he get clearance from?

" You might want to take a seat there at the navigator's station, "

Durango said to him. " Buckle up everybody! "

Akane started to get out of her seat. Durango motioned for her to buckle

up where she was.

" I need D-Day where he is for this more than I need him there. Enjoy

the ride. " He said to her as he flipped a series of switches. " And now to

kill the Mode 3 IFF transponder and the altimeter squawk. "

Ranma sat down at the navigator's station and buckled his lap belt. He

could feel the power of the engines as Durango throttled up. There was a

jolt as the pilot released the brakes.

" Time to get this baby off the ground! " He announced. " Ready

D-Day? "

" I'm ready, me bairns are ready; shove off! "

Durango lit the landing floods. He cranked the flaps down to full, and

adjusted his mixture for takeoff. Next he adjusted prop pitch, and the

blades began digging into the air. The PBY began rolling along the meadow.

" I'd be happier trying this on the water. Bettie's amphibious, but she

doesn't like dry land. "

" I think we need some mood music, " D-Day called out.

Mood music? Ranma thought in confusion.

" I do too. What about you Akane? " Durango asked her.

Akane nodded happily. " Sure! "

D-day leaned over Ranma to pick out a cassette from a case. He popped

the cassette inside the portable stereo box and cranked the volume. Next he

stabbed the 'play' button and took his seat.

Bettie's Dare began rolling faster and faster down the meadow runway.

From the stereo speakers came a crackle of static, and then the sounds of

Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" issued forth.

" This is 'mood music'? " Ranma asked, looking at the empty case for

Black Sabbath Volume 4.

Durango spared him a brief look over his shoulder. " You were

expecting the Glenn Miller Orchestra? "

Bettie's Dare clawed its way aloft with a roar of engines, just clearing

the line of trees that marked the end of the field. The PBY climbed to three

hundred feet. Durango pushed the nose over into a shallow turn and

throttled the engines back just a notch. He held the yoke steady with one

hand and gestured to Akane to crank the flaps back up

She did as she was instructed and began cranking the flaps up. Durango

told her to stop and to lock them in place. She did so, thrilling to be

involved if only in a little way. She also noticed that they were awfully low

to the ground.

She got Durango's attention and pointed to the ground.

" Not to worry; we're just trying to stay under Heathrow's radar, " he

replied. " If D-Day will be so kind as to get out the charts, we still have to

find our low road to Scotland. "

" On it, D-Day replied. He consulted several charts by flashlight.

Akane looked back to Ranma and smiled in delight. Ranma was too

busy white-knuckling his seat to reciprocate.

Professor McFogg's head appeared at the top of the ladder.

" I say Heironymous, aren't we flying a bit low? I looked out the

window to find myself nearly level with a windmill. "

" We're gonna keep it under 500 feet for a little while, Professor. At

least 'till we clear Heathrow's control area. "

The Professor seemed to understand what Durango was getting at.

" Very well, but do steer clear of populated areas. The noise and all, you

understand. "

" No problemo, " Durango replied.

McFogg's head dipped below.

" How's everything looking there, D-Day? " The pilot called behind

him.

" A-OK. Fuel consumption's gonna be greater than planned 'cause

we're staying low, but I estimate a good four hour reserve. "

Durango checked his own calculated fuel ladder. " That sounds about

right... I'm gonna need you to get the EW rig warmed up. "

D-Day pulled a d-ring binder down from a locker. " Yeah, I guess we

could use the practice. "

He opened the binder and ran his thin fingers down the laminated pages.

Leaning over Ranma at the navigator's station, he energized the Electronic

Warfare rig; a small box of electronics about the size of microwave oven.

The oscilloscope display came to life, flashing various waveforms in a test

pattern. He adjusted several knobs and let the thing sit for a minute.

" EW ready, " he called. He placed a set of headphones on and began

to listen. Several patterns appeared on the oscilloscope display. A second

display on the unit looked like some kind of radar, and three green

diamonds with numbers inside them flashed to life around the center.

" India band search radar, signal strength two, bearing 0-1-3 true. I'd

say that was Heathrow control. Also getting Lima band altitude radar,

signal strength one, also bearing 0-1-3 true. Last contact is some kind of

airborne sea-search radar, high amplitude, probably an RAF Nimrod,

bearing 2-5-7 true. "

Durango motioned for Akane to hand him a chart. With one hand on

the yoke he checked the bearings D-Day had called versus the actual

positions of radio-navigation and air traffic control radar stations.

" We're gonna hide from every radar we can for awhile. It's good

practice for when we need to go places we're not wanted. " He told

Akane.

Akane nodded, but she wasn't quite sure she understood.

D-Day offered the headphones to Ranma, who took them out of

curiosity. He listened intently to the warble and whistle and trill of

various radar and radio emissions.

" What am I listening for? " He asked D-Day.

" The warbling sound is a sea-search radar from an airborne

surveillance plane; a Nimrod belonging to the RAF. The steady whistle is

an altitude radar at Heathrow, the low sweeping tones are Heathrow's

air-search radar. "

" I'm listening to what radar sounds like? "

" Sort of. I can adjust frequency sensitivity to listen to other

things too. Check this out: "

He dialed a knob around. Ranma's eyes lit up.

" It sounds like people talking. "

" It is people talking. You're listening in on a cellular phone

conversation. Remember that the next time you use one. "

He set the headphones back to the various radar signals.

" Where did you learn all this stuff? " Akane asked. She had stepped

out of her seat to see what Ranma and D-Day were doing. Ranma set the

headphones on her ears so she could listen as well.

" The Air Force! " Durango and D-Day replied. " We used to fly

'Varks? together. "

They arrived on Orkney Island shortly after midnight. Durango set

Bettie's Dare down upon a loch, happy to have his seaplane in the water.

D-Day readied an inflatable zodiac boat from a locker under the deck

and with Ranma's help set it up with a small outboard motor.

On the shore Ferguson called to them and waved a green chemlight over

his head. D-Day took Ranma, Akane, Hiro, McFogg, and Katy Price

ashore in the zodiac. The water was still and black as they crossed it. Their

outboard was the only sound to be heard.

Ranma looked out across the water to the land. Tall dark hills framed a

star filled sky. There were only a few wisps of silvery cirrus clouds high in

the sky. The only time he ever saw so many stars was when he and his

father went on training trips in the mountains. He felt a great weight of

antiquity over the place, such that he had never felt in Japan.

Maes Howe was the largest hill, a flattened cone of darkness that the

starry sky faintly backlit. Ranma knew immediately where it was, though

he didn't know why.

"Is that where we're going?" Akane asked him quietly. She pointed at

Maes Howe.

"I think so," Ranma replied.

Ferguson took off his boots and stepped into the icy waters of the loch

to pull the boat ashore. He made a few disparaging comments about how

cold the water was, and any ideas Ranma had about getting out to help

were dispelled. D-Day secured the outboard motor.

Once they were safely (and dryly) ashore, Ferguson led them to the

camp. Six large four-man tents were standing around a raised pavilion.

The harsh glow of propane lanterns lit the pavilion, the tents were all dark.

Three Range Rovers were parked close by. Ranma noted the satellite

receiver/transmitters and the small generator which ran quietly beside

them. Runs of black power and instrumentation cables snaked along the

grassy ground. A few voices could be heard from the camp, but mostly

it was as quiet as it had been on the loch.

Ranma noted the Ferguson's box standing quietly a short distance from

the camp. It's tinny shrill was barely audible if you knew what to look for.

Farther down was another box, and he guessed there were more scattered

throughout the place.

Clay was in the camp sitting at a fold up table drinking tea. Two

researchers were playing cards while another monitored a display. He

waved for them and gestured to the large thermos of hot water.

" Welcome! " he greeted. " Warm yourselves with a spot of tea. "

" Where is everyone? " The Professor asked.

" Ames and a few of the others went into town to visit the local pub.

They should be back soon, " Ferguson supplied.

" As long as they aren't trying to drive out in this wilderness drunk, "

McFogg admonished.

" West went with them, " Clay said. West didn't drink apparently.

" Anything to report? " McFogg asked.

Ferguson consulted his notebook. " We established the baselines today,

no abnormal variances noted. All of our sensors are in place. Clay thinks

he's localized the nexus, it's inside the site -no surprise there I guess. "

" A magistrate was out here this afternoon inquiring about our permits, "

Clay added. " He also warned us about local druid cult activity. It's getting

to be that time of year again. "

" The summer solstice is weeks away, " McFogg said dismissively.

" Besides they all go to Stonehenge anyway. And this place was for

observing the Winter Solstice in any event. "

" Maybe they know something we don't, " Hiro said.

" Possible, given the circumstances. " McFogg admitted.

Hiro led Ranma and Akane to their tent while the others conferred.

"You two get your own tent; lucky you, huh?" He joked.

They didn't give him any satisfaction with a response.

"Well anyway, here's where you'll sleep. Ferguson said something about

a chemical toilet on the other side of the camp in case you need to go in the

middle of the night. There should be some sleeping bags and foam

mattresses ready for you."

He opened the flap and looked inside.

"Yep," he observed.

"They don't mind if we take a walk do they?" Akane asked.

"No reason why you can't," Hiro answered her. "Just take a chemlight

or two and watch your step. If I know Ferguson, he's got cable runs all

over the place out there. Wouldn't want you to trip and get hurt."

"Thanks Hiro," Akane said kindly.

Hiro bowed for her. "Any time Akane-chan. You kids have fun, but

remember that these guys like to get an early start on the day. Breakfast

will probably be a little after dawn. Good night!"

"Good night Hiro," Ranma and Akane said in unison.

Hiro walked back to the pavilion. Ranma placed their small bags in the

tent and looked at Akane questioningly.

"What's up?" He asked her.

"I just wanted to go up to that hill. I don't know why really."

"That's funny, I kind of did too."

"Then let's go!" Akane cried.

Ranma pulled on his camouflage jacket. "First things first. It's getting

a little cold out here, and I'm sure there'll be a good wind blowing on top

of that hill. Did you bring anything warm to wear?"

?Such concern!? Akane cried. She reached down into her bag. "I

brought a sweater." She put it on and snugged the sleeves down to her

wrists.

They took a few chemlights from a box sitting on the table in the

pavilion as Hiro suggested. McFogg, Clay, Ferguson, Hiro, and Katy were

engaged in a complex conversation the particulars of which Ranma and Akane

could only guess at. Hiro winked at them as they left.

Ranma took the first chemlight and snapped it. He shook it vigorously,

and it began to glow with a red light. He held it in his right hand as Akane

took his left in hers.

They walked across the meadow and up the gradually increasing slope

of Maes Howe. The dark cone of a hill loomed before them. The night

was very quiet with the camp in the distance. Akane looked back once to

see the tiny lights of the lanterns and the great shadows of people moving

inside the pavilion.

"What is this place?" She asked Ranma. "Why is it so important?"

Ranma tried to remember what he learned earlier that day.

"I asked Hiro about it, and he found me some books. He had to read

them for me, 'cause I don't read English very well, and there were some

really strange words in them. Maes Howe is a little weird. Apparently

people thought it was some kind of 'barrow mound'."

"What's that?"

"It's a man-made hill they raise over graves. The book said that the

people who lived here buried their dead in them after a war. They would

put the weapons and armor of the dead in the mound as well as other

things they thought the fallen would need in the afterlife."

"This is a grave?" Akane asked hesitantly.

"That's the weird part. This is a man-made hill, but they never found

any graves."

"This is a man-made hill? It's huge!"

"Yup. They took big blocks of soil and stacked them up. Eventually

the rains and wind smoothed out the mound and grass and trees grew on

it."

"How old is this place?"

"The book said almost five thousand years."

They stopped short at a length of chain-link fence above a low wall of

hard packed earth that ringed the hill. By the ruddy glow of the chemlight

they tried to read the sign posted upon the fence.

"I'm not sure, but I'll bet it says 'keep out'," Ranma said evenly.

"Now what?"

Ranma easily cleared the short fence.

"I'm not gonna let this thing stop me from getting a look."

He thrust out his hands and gracefully lifted her over the fence. He

set her upon the grassy slope and started up the hill. Akane was taken

along with him by the hand.

"Should we be doing this?" Akane asked him.

"Don't worry. I'm pretty sure the Professor has a permit to be here,

and even if he doesn't, who's gonna catch us at this time of night?" He

gestured around to the dark countryside. "There isn't anyone but us

around for kilometers anyway."

They came across a great stone that rose up on the slope of the hill.

By the glow of the chemlight they could barely make out faded carvings nearly

obliterated by the passage of centuries. It must have weighed several tons

and was utterly alien on the otherwise gentle grassy slope.

They looked at the stone for awhile and contemplated it's antiquity.

Without much light to see by however, they soon lost interest and

continued on. Akane voiced the desire to look at it again in the morning

sunlight.

Near the top of the hill they found a chain link gate that covered an

opening into Maes Howe. Another sign, well abused by graffiti, gave a

similar 'keep out' message. The gate was unlocked, and hung slightly ajar.

A Ferguson's box kept its tinny vigil upon the opening.

"Wanna go inside?" Ranma asked her.

Akane clutched at his arm. "Not just yet," she replied.

"What's the matter, you scared?" He teased.

"Maybe a little," she replied hesitantly. "This place is eery. I don't

care if they didn't find any skeletons here, it still feels like a graveyard."

"Well now what?" He asked.

She tugged at his arm. "Maybe we should climb the rest of the way up

and watch the stars."

He followed her lead with a murmur of approval. Truth be known he

wasn't ready to go inside just yet either. But not because I'm afraid, he

told himself. It just doesn't feel like the right time to be going in there.

Another Ferguson's box sat at the very acme of the hill.

At the top of Maes Howe Akane sat down upon the grass and lifted her

face to the sky. Stars filled the heavens, more than she had ever seen living

in Nerima her whole life. The Milky Way was a bright band of light that

spanned the sky like a bridge.

"It's so beautiful," she whispered. The glorious night had dispelled her

earlier fears.

Ranma sat down beside her. The breeze was chilly, but he found it

invigorating.

"You cold?" He asked her after a bit.

"No, I'm all right," Akane answered, still watching the sky for

constellations she might recognize. Then she snuggled in closer to him with

a grin. "On second thought, maybe I could use a little close company."

He put his arm around her waist and drew her in close to his side.

Katy and Hiro had turned in to their respective tents to sleep. Ferguson

had decided to take a walk. D-Day went back to Bettie's Dare in the zodiac.

That left Clay and Professor McFogg to continue the evening's discussion.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Clay asked.

"What is?" McFogg asked in reply.

"Those two kids; finding them like that."

"I hadn't expected anything like this, if that's what you mean." McFogg

said, taking a puff on his pipe.

"They fit Andr駳 profile well enough," Clay observed.

"We shall see tomorrow," McFogg countered. "That is if Maes Howe

doesn't surprise us as Nerima did."

"They're up on the hill right now," Clay said. "Suppose they aren't just

guides but a catalyst?"

"Andr頮ever mentioned something like that in his writings," McFogg

said dismissively.

"What writings could be recovered after the October Revolution that is.

What he could salvage. Who knows, old Casimir may be holding on to

some of his father's works."

McFogg shook his head. "Andr頫ept nothing for himself, it was too

dangerous for him. His relations with Czar Nicholas cast a great shadow

over him. Andr頨ad to bide his time during Lenin's theological purges,

and so Grigory learned this lesson well."

"So Lenin didn't know?"

"He knew a little about the Czar's project, and that it was related to

the event of 1908, but I doubt he ever understood it's significance. He was

too busy trying to hold power within his own camp as well as stamp out the

White Russians and the surviving Aristocracy to care about some

boondoggle in the Siberian wastes."

"I'm curious Professor, when did Grigory come to be involved with his

father's work then?"

"Just before World War II. Andr頨ad already passed away, and he

was working as an assistant to a theoretical physicist. We met in Stockholm

during a lecture on atomic mass defect and it's relationship to the periodic

table of elements."

Clay laughed. "It's seems like you just came from that lecture, Professor."

"It doesn't seem that long ago to me, though it's been over fifty years.

I was just a boy then with my father. Andr頨ad sent my father his notes

during the October Revolution, and Grigory wondered if he could get them

returned. My father had long since copied them in the hopes of continuing

the work, and so he agreed."

"Grigory took them back even though his father had abandoned them

for fear of his life?"

"Times were different for Grigory than they were for his father. The

paranormal and the occult were finding acceptance under Stalin's rule as

closet alternatives to Lenin's atheism. Stalin himself maintained a secret

interest in the occult. If not for Stalin's fetish for the occult, Grigory

would have been sent to the gulag long before I met him."

Clay nodded and poured himself another cup of tea. "Hmmmm...It's

rather peculiar to be walking in the footsteps of history, don't you think?"

"We walk in the footsteps of history every day," McFogg remarked.

Clay clicked his tongue in reproach. "Than it's rather peculiar to be

walking in the footsteps of such a peculiar history."

McFogg cast his eyes to Maes Howe, and left Clay's statement

unanswered.

"I hoped that like Diomedes and Andr駳 expedition, one our party

would become the Wayfinder. I did not expect outsiders. Ranma and

Akane are fine young souls, but I fear this may be too much for them."

"Ranma seems a perfect choice, given his exposure to magical

phenomena."

"Perhaps, but whether or not this qualifies him is yet to be seen. I

would like to find that they are not the Wayfinders, but in my heart I

fear that they are."

"Why is that, Professor?"

McFogg looked away from the hill, and back to Clay.

"Because the last Wayfinder was killed by the Event of 1908."

End of Part Four

Author?s Notes:

1) The Consolidated-Vultee (Convair) Catalina PBY-5 and 6 model

seaplanes served the U.S. and its allies during World War II and in the

decade following the end of the war. Catalinas served as scouts, anti-

submarine planes, transports, and search and rescue planes for downed

aircrew. It was a Catalina that found the Japanese fleet during the decisive

Battle of Midway. Catalinas also proved their worth in the Battle of the

Aleutian Islands of Alaska. They could operate in the freezing temperatures

that grounded other planes, and required no runways or developed airbases

for their operations.

Over 1800 Catalinas were built, and of these, almost 900 of them

were designated 5A or 6As -making them ?amphibians?, or capable of

landing on the ground as well as the water. The Catalina could seat over

a dozen crew and passengers comfortably. It was powered by two

supercharged Pratt and Whitney R-1830 radial piston engines which

generated a combined 2200 HP. The Catalina achieved a top speed of 220

MPH and had a phenomenal 2500 mile range. They frequently carried two

flight crews for long voyages.

The majority of Catalinas retained only two .50 caliber Browning

machine guns for armament during the war. Aircraft assigned to anti-

submarine operations carried depth bombs, conventional air dropped

bombs, and by the end of the war carried primitive passive acoustic-homing

torpedoes.

My technical specs on the Catalina come from the 1946 edition of

JANE?s All the World?s Military Aircraft. (In case anyone?s curious.)

2) Heironymous forgot to file a flight plan with Heathrow. By VFR he

means ?Visual Flight Rules?. Technically all he needs to fly VFR is to

inform Heathrow ATC of his departure and arrival points and his ETA.

(Permission to enter Heathrow?s controlled airspace would also be nice.)

VFR only applies within specific visibility guidelines, however.

3) Deciding that he would rather get going than argue with the Tower,

Heironymous takes off. By securing his Mode 3 IFF transponder he can

fly low under Heathrow?s effective radar coverage and avoid detection.

(By keeping the transponder active he appears as a blip with identifying

alphanumerics next to it on the ATC screens whether Heathrow?s radar

can see him or not! The same goes for the altimeter squawk.)

To assist him in avoiding Heathrow?s air search radar, he has D-Day

use their EW rig to detect and evaluate the various radar signals. Think of

the EW (Electronics Warfare) rig as a superwhamodyne fuzz buster. And

yes you can listen in on cellular phone conversations with such devices!

(Big Brother Is Watching)

By comparing bearings and signal strengths, a skilled operator can plot

a course to take the aircraft around effective radar range or to ?thread?

overlapping areas of coverage at the point where both radars are at their

weakest. D-Day learned these skills in the Air Force as a co-pilot/

bombardier on a FB-111 ?Aardvark? supersonic fighter-bomber. a.k.a.

'Vark'.

4) Maes Howe. More will be explained in the narrative of Part Five.

5) Thanks to Chris Rijk who pointed out a few of my inaccuracies

concerning London and England?s precipitation. (Brother, you haven?t

seen a dry summer ?til you?ve lived in Yuma, Arizona!) To Jen Whitton

for her enthusiasm and her wit. (To say nothing of her support by

working on a RGTW/CTW homepage! Mo bhean ᬡinn!)

Free The Nukes!


	5. Chapter 5

-Chasing the Wind-

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man

Fission Park scientific experiment in Nerima has disastrous consequences

for Ranma and Akane. Their ki?s are disrupted, causing them to

lose their martial arts focus, and giving them nightmares when they

sleep. Doctor Tofu recommends that they remain in close proximity,

as their ki?s are skewed in opposite respects to each other. Together

they are balanced and whole.

They fly to England to meet with the scientists and their leader

Professor Balthazar McFogg in order to find a more permanent

solution to their problem.

Ukyo, Nabiki, and Tatewaki Kuno are abducted by Russian agents

working for a former KGB agent named Ivan Tarchenko. Tarchenko

is part of a Russian team researching the same ?magnetic disturbances?

as the English. Kuno breaks them free, and they flee into the forests

of the Ukraine with Tarchenko?s men in pursuit.

Ranma and Akane are treated to dinner on the Thames by

McFogg. While Akane proceeds to get drunk, Ranma runs into

Anazali. Anazali offers little more than questions before

disappearing into thin air. Following the unusual occurrences at

dinner, a romantic interlude between Ranma and Akane is interrupted

by the arrival of Heironymous Durango and his Catalina PBY.

Durango and his partner fly McFogg and Company to the megalithic

site of Maes Howe on Orkney Island, Scotland for the next event.

Nabiki, Ukyo, and Kuno continue their flight from Tarchenko

and his henchmen across the southern Ukrainian hills. Ukyo falls

ill, and Kuno must carry her as Tarchenko?s men close in on them.

Part Five:

Propositions

Chapter One

?They seem to be headed west towards the Dniester River,?

Fyodor said over his radio.

Tarchenko took Fyodor?s report from Sevastopol?, the Maritime

Patrol base jutting out into the Black Sea. The blast of a ship?s whistle

sounded close by; a Udaloy cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet putting to

sea.

?If they cross the river they can get into Moldavia. We might lose

them there,? Tarchenko observed. Moldavia wanted nothing to do

with the Russian Federation, and the old KGB Station House had

been thrown out. He had few if any contacts that could help him there,

and sending his own men would only arouse suspicion.

?I have men in Tiraspol watching the border entry points,? Fyodor

replied.

Tarchenko nodded. He had patrols sweeping along the Romanian

and Bulgarian coasts and even just off Turkish waters outside of

Istanbul. If they tried to escape by boat they would try to make landfall

along there, and if they tried to make for the Aegean Sea, his men

would catch them at the narrow strait between Istanbul and ܳk?

?They will not get far Ivan Mikhailyvich,? Fyodor assured. ?My

men have their trail. It is a simple matter of time.?

?I hope so Fyodor Gennadiyvich. I do hope so.?

Tarchenko cut off his radio with a click of static. Fyodor grunted

a curse and stowed his radio on his belt. Their tracker Nicolai motioned

for him to come over.

He did so. Nicolai rubbed his fingers beneath Fyodor?s nose. A sour

slightly foul odor tickled his senses.

?So Colya, you have called me over to smell the urine of some

woodland creature?? Fyodor scowled.

?This beast walks upon two legs,? Nicolai replied. ?It is but half a

day old. They camped here for the night. Over there is their attempt to

make a fire. Pity that they failed.?

?Yes, then we might have found them sooner.?

Nicolai nodded. ?No matter. They aren?t far, and they are making

no attempts to cover their tracks.?

Fyodor grunted in agreement and consulted a topo map.

?Where do you think they are headed?? He asked Nicolai. ?If you

were a Japanese fugitive in a strange land and were pursued by men

who sought your death, where would you go??

Nicolai looked at the map. ?Are you assuming that they have no

idea where they are??

?It would be logical. They were sedated for the flight from Japan.?

Nicolai clicked his tongue for a few moments in thought. ?It?s a

moot question. We know they are headed west.?

?But why west? What is prompting them to move west??

?Perhaps they think they can make the journey into Central

Europe and find help. Who knows? I think they are three frightened

youths and are just running.?

Fyodor grunted again. ?I see. Let us continue the hunt then, Colya.

The helicopter should be returning within the hour, and we can send

them ahead of us to search.?

Nicolai nodded and signaled his men to form up again. The seven

of them were all Ukrainians; men familiar with the local terrain. At

times they poached game and at others they ran errands for the KGB

across the borders into then nominal Soviet puppet states like

Romania and Bulgaria. Two had recently been ?advisors? to Serbian

forces in nearby Bosnia/Herzegovina. All were ?blooded?; in fact they

were quite merciless killers.

They were dressed out in hunting fatigues and packs. Several of

them carried bolt action rifles at sling arms to keep up the appearance

of a game hunting party. They spoke little as they marched, keeping

their eyes to the ground for signs of their quarrys? trail. When they

did speak it was in Ukrainian; since Misha?s death and Dmitri?s

crippling, there were no more Russians in their party. Tarchenko

didn?t count as he was their employer, and in any event, he wasn?t

around.

?I want them by this evening Nicolai,? Fyodor advised as they

marched deeper into the woods.

Nicolai knew better than to object to the huge man at his side.

Instead he kept his silence. Early the next morning seemed a more

likely estimate with pursuit on foot. Unless the helicopter got lucky

and spotted them sooner.

Kuno called a halt when Nabiki was having trouble keeping up. He

set Ukyo gently upon the grass. They were following a small stream

northwest as it wound through wooded hills.

Nabiki stooped to take a drink from the stream. The water was

cold and sweet, fed by the last of the melting snowpack from the

distant Transylvanian Alps of Romania. After drinking her fill she wet

a rag for Ukyo and knelt over her.

She was still drifting in and out of sleep. Her fever was raging and

her face and throat flushed with heat. Nabiki set the cool rag over her

brow, stirring her to wakefulness.

?How are you feeling?? Nabiki asked, for lack of anything better to

say.

Ukyo tried to lift her head and then thought better of it.

?Terrible. I?m burning up. Where are we? It smells like we?re close

to the sea.?

?Safe,? Nabiki replied. She had seen a few gulls earlier herself, and

hoped that they could find a village soon.

Ukyo lay back upon the grass. ?I?m just slowing you down, aren?t

I??

?Don?t even start Ukyo!? Nabiki shot back. ?We aren?t leaving

you here, so forget it!?

Ukyo tried to smile before she faded back into a fitful sleep.

Nabiki looked up to Kuno. ?She needs help.?

?I am aware of that, Nabiki Tendo,? Kuno replied calmly. ?However,

we must find it first. Are you ready to continue??

Nabiki sighed. Her own weariness was quite evident, but she

started down the banks of the stream. Kuno picked Ukyo up into his

arms and carefully put her over his shoulders. He grunted in exertion,

and Nabiki winced as she heard him.

I knew even Kuno couldn?t keep this up without feeling it sooner

or later.

They continued on in silence. Occasionally Kuno would look over

his shoulder, but in the woods as they were it would be difficult to see

their pursuers coming. Nabiki had the lead for awhile and she followed

a game trail up the stream.

The sound of the helicopter was heard in the distance some time

later. It approached slowly, still searching carefully for a sign of them.

They took shelter from it under the cover of a dense thicket. The

thorns and brambles stung their arms and tore their clothes, but it was

preferable to catching a bullet in the forehead.

The helicopter hovered closer to them. Nabiki could see a man

behind a machine gun sweeping his weapon back and forth only

twenty meters over their heads. The loud chopping noise of the rotor

wash rang in their ears.

Suddenly the machine gunner cut loose with a long burst. Hot

brass showered down upon them, but the bullets tore apart a copse

of trees on the opposite side of the stream and thirty meters distant.

Nabiki could smell the cut grass and the shorn trees as the gunner

blew the hell out of the copse.

What are they doing?

The helicopter dipped lower to the ground, it?s rotor wash stirring

up a cloud of dust and bits of mutilated vegetation. It hung there for

a few moments, and Nabiki expected people to jump out and search.

The Marakov was in her hand, and she readied herself to draw back

the slide and chamber a round.

?Hold, Nabiki Tendo,? Kuno admonished. ?Let us first learn their

intent.?

Nabiki waited, though her hands were ready to work the pistol as

he had taught her. Fear dispelled any compunctions about using it if

she had to.

At this point I?d rather be shot and killed than taken back and

tortured like Ukyo.

Two men jumped down from the helicopter. Both wore mottled

Soviet Naval Infantry camouflage pattern fatigue trousers and brown

wool pullover sweaters and carried AK-74s at the ready.

?Yah ustal,? The first man said loudly to the other.

?Da.?

?Kahturom chasu??

?Pyatu myenoot vos?mogo,? the second replied tiredly.

They fished around in the ruined copse for a few minutes.

?What are they looking for?? Nabiki asked Kuno.

?I do not know,? Kuno responded.

The first man cried out and pointed at the ground. ?Yah nashol eto!?

Together the two men pulled a bloodied deer carcass from the

ruined copse. They threw the carcass up onto the helicopter and then

climbed aboard. The helicopter rose into the sky and flew southeast.

?Dinner is served,? Nabiki remarked. The berries had run out at

lunch time, and she was hungry again. She tucked the Marakov back

into her jeans.

?Fortune smiles once again upon us,? Kuno added. He collected

Ukyo and they continued on.

They marched for another two hours, trying to get as far as

possible with the remaining daylight. As they crested one last hill they

saw the final rays of dusk glitter upon the Dniester River in the distance.

Farther south was a small firth that fed into the Black Sea.

Even more importantly were the lights of a small town below them

that winked on as the daylight faded away.

?We could get there tonight,? Nabiki cried. ?Maybe we?ll find a

doctor for Ukyo, too.?

Kuno didn?t seem as optimistic. ?We must continue to exercise

caution. We do not know what our captors have told the authorities

about us.?

Nabiki?s smile dropped into a sullen frown. ?Yeah, I suppose

you?re right Kuno-baby. We don?t speak the language; they could

just make up whatever story they wanted about us -we wouldn?t be

able to tell our side of the story to anyone.?

?Still, fair Ukyo requires attention. We must simply exercise a

certain restraint in seeking it.? Kuno said after a minute.

They slipped into the town as night fell in earnest. It was a fishing

town, mostly along the wide banks of the Dniester. A series of docks

and quays lined both sides of the slow moving river. The mooring

lines of fishing boats creaked as they calmly surged against their cleats.

Few people were out on the streets, which were unevenly lit by weak

incandescent lamps.

?Do you see anything that looks like a hospital?? Nabiki asked

Kuno.

?I do not,? Kuno replied.

?I wonder where we are,? Nabiki continued. ?Maybe if I could

find a telephone we could call home and get help.?

?I do not think that is likely,? Kuno replied.

Nabiki shot him a dark look. ?Stop trying to be so encouraging.?

They skirted past a restaurant/tavern filled with boisterous

fishermen. The sights and smells were inviting, but the fear of discovery

was even more palpable. Nabiki made a mental note to remember the

place if they got desperate enough to venture inside. That would

probably be soon, she thought glumly.

They reached a small train station. Nabiki had the hope of finding

a map there that would at least tell them where they were. She wasn?t

disappointed. A large faded sign was painted on a wall outside the

station office.

Nabiki studied the map intently. She couldn?t read any of the

Cyrillic writing painted on it, but she had a general idea where they

were now.

?And to think I?d never use my geography lessons!? She cried in a

happy (if hushed) tone of voice.

?What did you learn, Nabiki Tendo?? Kuno asked.

?I know where we are now,? she announced.

?And where, pray tell, is that??

?We?re in the southwestern part of the Ukraine, close to the coast

of the Black Sea. In fact we?re really close to Moldavia. It?s just north

of here.?

?And what does this mean for us??

?It means we can get across the border and call for help. The

Moldavians have no love for the Russians. I don?t know if Japan has

an embassy there, but there?s bound to be some friendly western

power that does.?

?How far??

Nabiki checked the map again.

?I?m not sure. There isn?t any scale on this thing.? An idea popped

into her head. ?Wait here with Ukyo, I?ll be right back.?

She looked around the station as Kuno watched over Ukyo. She

found what she was looking for, a train schedule. She couldn?t read

the Cyrillic letters, but the numbers for train times were Arabic. All

she had to do was compare the words on the schedule with the words

on the map, and put a time next to it.

After ten minutes of furious study, she had what she was looking

for.

?There?s a train that comes through here around midnight,? she

informed Kuno. ?It stops for ten minutes and then continues on north

into Moldavia, some big city on the river. We can stow away on the

train and ride in style. It arrives in just two hours!?

Kuno was puzzled. ?And how do you know what time it is here??

?There?s a big clock above that tavern we passed,? she replied

coolly. She put her hands on her hips. ?Well? What do you think??

?I never doubted your wisdom Nabiki Tendo,? he replied stoically.

Nabiki flashed him a smile. ?Why Kuno-baby! I?m flattered!?

The train was a dilapidated old diesel locomotive hauling timber on

rusty flatcars, tanker cars which reeked of kerosene, and a series of

boxcars which had seen better days themselves. It stopped at the

station with a squeal of brakes and a shower of orange sparks.

A light flicked on at the station office. A man in a dingy nightshirt

and slippers stepped out of the office bearing a small dun colored sack.

One of the engineers hopped down from the locomotive and offered a

greeting to him.

? Hello Vasily Ivanovich! ? The engineer called.

Vasily raised his hand in greeting.

? Hello Sergei Petrovich. ?

Sergei took the sack from Vasily.

? You have some of that brandy? ? The engineer asked.

Vasily sighed. ? Of course, help yourself. ?

Sergei took a healthy pull from a small flask that Vasily offered. He

smacked his lips in delight.

? Such wonderful brandy you always have! ? He enthused. ? It is

June, but sometimes the nights get chilly. I thank you. ?

? You are welcome, Sergei Petrovich. ?

Sergei took one more pull from the flask and handed it back to

Vasily, who had a drink for himself. ? So Vasily, what news do you

have besides this sack of mail? ?

? Nothing of interest. ?

? Well I have some for you, ? Sergei announced. ? In Belgorod

they say three Japanese spies were discovered in Odessa. The three

escaped, killing a few men in the process. They were fleeing on foot

this way. You have not seen or heard of any such people have you? ?

? Japanese? I would remember such as that if I had, but the

answer is no... You say they killed some men? ?

? Yes my friend. With a sword no less. You will keep a sharp

eye out won?t you? I am told there will be a reward for their capture. ?

Vasily nodded with a yawn.

Sergei got back on the train with the sack of mail over his shoulder.

He waved as the diesel rumbled from idle to half power and then back

down to one-quarter. The train began to move slowly at first and then

gradually picked up speed.

?Bolshoyeh spaceba, Vasily Ivanovich!?

?Pozhalsta. Da svedonya!?

Nabiki, Ukyo, and Kuno had no idea what it was Sergei and Vasily

were discussing, but then again they had more pressing concerns. Like

getting into one of the boxcars. Kuno managed to pry open one of the

doors (which was thankfully ajar) just as the train started moving.

Nabiki helped Ukyo get inside and then hopped up as well. Kuno slid

the door nearly shut, leaving a sliver of starlight to shine through the

gap.

?We made it,? Nabiki declared happily. ?Moldavia here we come.?

Ukyo brushed at her sweat matted hair. Her fever had subsided a

bit, but she continued to feel weak.

?Do you honestly think we can find help there?? She asked.

Nabiki tried to be cheerful. ?We can find a doctor for you. I?m sure

of that at least.?

?I?ll be all right. I just need a bath and something to eat.?

Nabiki grinned?I can help you on that score.? She withdrew a cloth

napkin from her purse. The scent of something positively wonderful

wafted from the slightly greasy napkin.

Ukyo?s mouth watered in anticipation. ?Is that what I think it is??

Nabiki nodded and handed her the napkin. Ukyo unwrapped it to

reveal a kind of soft fried pastry. It smelled of beef and cheese.

?I think it?s called a ?pee-rosh-kee?. It?s filled with meat and cheese

and vegetables. They?re pretty good.?

Ukyo took a bite. A bit of grease dribbled down her fingers which

she licked clean in spite of her better manners. ?At this point anything

would be good, but this! Mmmmm...?

When she had devoured the thing she sat back against a wooden

shipping crate. She seemed in better spirits already. For this Nabiki

was grateful.

?Wherever did you get that?? Ukyo asked after some moments.

?I sort of ?liberated? it from a tavern,? Nabiki replied with a grin.

?To be honest I liberated several of them. I guess I just have larceny

in my heart!?

?Who would have guessed?? Ukyo joked. She and Nabiki enjoyed

a brief chuckle between them. Kuno remained silent and contemplative

in the darkness of the boxcar.

Time passed by the clacking of the wheels along the tracks. The

train climbed a gentle upward grade. Kuno at last fell asleep while

kneeling on the wooden floor of the boxcar.

?I?ve been thinking,? Ukyo said, dispelling the silence between them.

?About?? Nabiki asked.

?About why we were kidnapped. I think this is all about Ranma and

Akane.?

Nabiki nodded. She had tossed similar thoughts about her head

during their journey.

?I?ve been thinking that too. Question is, what is it that these

Russians want with them that they?d kidnap us to get it??

?Maybe they think we know where they are.?

?We do know where they are. At least where they were going.?

Ukyo brushed at her long fall of hair again. ?Those English with all

the money, they sent for them to come to England, right??

?Yeah.?

?What was it they were looking for in Nerima? I was always too

busy to ask when they were in the shop, and my English isn?t very

good either.?

?I talked to this man named Ferguson,? Nabiki began.

?The one they named those silly white boxes after?? Ukyo

interjected.

?The same. He said they were chasing after some kind of

?magnetic disturbance?. I couldn?t tell you what that means, but if they

were willing to throw around the kind of money they did to find it, it

must be important.?

?Important enough to do this to us,? Ukyo noted.

? How long ago did the train leave? ? Fyodor asked sternly.

Vasily?s knees began to buckle. The huge man held his throat in a

grip that was just shy of choking him.

? A-About an hour ago, sir! ?

? Did you see anything suspicious tonight? Perhaps three young

people of Asian descent? ?

? The spies?! No! Not at all sir! I would have reported it to the

authorities if I had! ?

Fyodor seemed satisfied with Vasily?s answers. He released his

vice like grip on the man?s throat and turned to Nicolai.

? You are sure they were here? ?

Nicolai nodded solemnly. ? They were here. I can find no other

tracks leading away, but I did find some close to the rails. They don?t

go anywhere, therefore they must have boarded the train. ?

? How do you know it?s them? ? Fyodor demanded.

Nicolai pointed the beam of his flashlight to the tracks. ? There are

two sets of small tracks here. Womens? feet; slippers and a Nike brand

running shoe. Our quarry wore such shoes, and I do not think the likes

of this village could afford such a decadent western luxury. The last set

is the damning evidence however: bare feet, belonging to a man. A

martial artist of some kind judging by the way he distributes his weight

as he walks. ?

? I?m convinced, Colya. ? Fyodor said evenly. He returned his

attention to Vasily. ? Where was this train bound? ?

? Razdel?naya, then Tiraspol, and then Bendery! ? Vasily replied

quickly.

Fyodor knew the territory, but pulled his topo map from its canvas

lined case anyway. By the glow of Nicolai?s flashlight he studied the

train tracks on their route. He pointed to a spot on the map.

? Send for the helicopter! ? He ordered one of the men. ? We

shall cut them off here on the south side of Zhmerinka Bridge. ?

The man switched on his radio and did as he was instructed.

? They will not escape us, Colya. ?

Nicolai chose to remain silent, although he couldn?t agree more.

Chapter Two

?You?ve been awfully quiet since we got here,? Akane said quietly.

She sat on the ground between Ranma?s legs as he wrapped his arms

about her. Her head lay against his chest. Ancient Maes Howe was

quiet and still, and the stars shone brilliantly above them.

?I?ve had a lot on my mind,? he replied.

?Anything you want to talk about??

?Well...?

Akane reached up to touch his face. ?I?m right here if you change

your mind.?

?Okay,? he replied.

She felt like she needed to say something to him. There was so

much she could say, but when her lips opened to speak only the most

important thought in her mind came out.

?I love you, Ranma.?

He gave her a squeeze. ?I know you do.?

?And you love me?? She asked when he didn?t reciprocate.

?Yup. Even when you?re a violent tomboy.?

She tensed a little in his embrace, then relaxed again.

?I?m going to let that go -just this once.?

They caught a flash of light above them and looked up in time to

see the fiery remains of a meteor streak across the sky. Akane gasped

in delight.

?Did you make a wish?? Ranma asked her.

?No. Am I supposed to??

?Sure! I thought everyone knew that.?

She huffed something under her breath.

?Don?t worry about it,? he said to her. ?I?m sure another one will

come along.?

Moments later, another did. It trailed a long tail of golden sparks

that faded away near the horizon.

?Wow, that one almost made it to the ground,? Ranma observed.

?I made my wish,? Akane announced.

?Oh yeah? What for??

?Oh no. If I told you, it wouldn?t come true. I know at least that

much about wishes.? Especially this one.

?Okay then. I hope it comes true for you.?

She felt her heart leap as he said those words.

?One day it will...? She replied in a whisper. Just don?t keep me

waiting long...

They watched the skies for awhile longer in companionable silence.

The wind was starting to pick up a bit, but with Akane so close, Ranma

didn?t feel it. His fianc饠of three years was safe and warm in the

shelter of his arms.

He felt her draw a breath to speak.

?Ranma??

?Yeah??

?About last night...?

?I thought we went through this already.?

?I?m not sure if you understand what I was trying to say.?

He was silent. Okay, just what were you trying to say?

?I?m sorry I left you alone last night...You know; after...?

He tensed in surprise. Akane continued:

?I got a little scared. We?ve never been so, um, carried away

before...I?m sorry, I guess I was just so nervous about where we were

going.?

You weren?t the only one, he thought, heart racing at the

memory of last night.

?It?s nothing against you, Ranma,? she finished quietly.

He had no idea what he should say to her. For once silence wasn?t

the comfort they had often taken for granted. He settled for giving

her a reassuring squeeze. It wasn?t enough, for either of them.

?I?m feeling a little sleepy,? she yawned. It was a clean way of

extricating themselves from such a tangled predicament.

Ranma followed her lead.

?Okay. I guess it is pretty late. Hiro said they liked to get an early

start anyway.?

?Yep,? she yawned again. He helped her to her feet. Despite their

awkward escape he still found the courage to take her hand. He had no

desire to forsake all affection for her no matter how nervous they were

about breaching that particular great unknown of their relationship.

They started back down the slope of Maes Howe. As they passed

the entrance to the tunnel that led into the heart of the barrow mound,

Ranma was sure he felt a presence watching them. He looked about

casually so as not to concern Akane, but found nothing.

If it?s Anazali, she can keep herself hidden no matter how hard I

look.

When they reached the camp, Ames, West and the others arrived

in a Range Rover and stumbled into their tents. McFogg had retired

for the evening but Clay was still awake. The parapsychologist said

nothing to the men, but offered a good-night to Ranma and Akane.

They offered one in return and found their tent.

He watched them go with a look of concern on his face. McFogg?s

revelation to him about the fate of the last Wayfinder did not sit well

with him. He found that he liked them; they made a cute couple and

despite their petty bickering it was quite obvious that they loved each

other dearly.

All the more tragic perhaps, he mused moodily. Then again

it might explain why there are two Wayfinders instead of one. They are

probably tied to each other as well as the events they would find for us.

I?m willing to wager that one alone is incapable of acting as the

Wayfinder.

Ranma found the chemical toilet Hiro had discussed earlier while

Akane changed into her bed clothes. When he returned she left the tent

for a similar visit. He stripped down to his tank top and boxers and set

up the sleeping bags and the foam mattresses. On a whim he unzipped

the summer-weight bags and reassembled them into one large spread.

He pushed the mats together to make a moderate sized and comfy bed.

When Akane returned she noted the change in bedding arrange-

ments, but didn?t say anything about it. He read the look on her face

and replied anyway.

?I just thought it should be more like home,? he said to her.

?I guess so,? she admitted with a slight hint of a smile. She slipped

under the sleeping bag cover and patted the spot next to her. He joined

her for a hug and a good-night kiss. Akane returned his embrace with

warmth, but it was clear she had no intentions of going further with it.

Instead she parted with him and lay her head against his shoulder to

sleep.

She soon drifted off by his side, but he remained awake for some

time afterwards.

How can I be happy and troubled at the same time? He

thought darkly. The last few days had brought them closer together

than they had ever been, but it had been under such trying

circumstances.

He turned to watch her while she slumbered. Asleep she was so

peaceful, so tranquil and beautiful. He felt a little unworthy to have

someone so special for a fianc饬 especially since the choice hadn?t

been his.

Sleep found him; but only after much soul searching, many

questions, and few answers.

Hiro Ohata stepped out of his tent and walked over to Ranma

and Akane?s tent. It was half past two in the morning, and he knew

he should be asleep. Unfortunately he had the nagging feeling that

something was amiss. It might have been overreacting, but he had

his SigArms .45 in his hand, locked and loaded.

Both of them were asleep in the tent. He watched them for a few

minutes to satisfy his own peace of mind before walking over to the

pavilion. He thumbed the decock on his pistol, safely dropping the

hammer with a click. He tucked the weapon into the elastic

waistband of his boxers and joined Clay at the table. Clay didn?t

sleep much, and it was no surprise to find him still up at this hour.

?Hello Hiro, what keeps you up??

Hiro shrugged. ?Just a little case of nerves I guess,? he replied.

?That explains the pistol.?

Hiro sighed. ?Nothing gets by you Mister Clay.?

?It?s a little obvious, Hiro. Any particular reason that you are

armed in your bedclothes??

?Like I said Mister Clay, just a little case of nerves.?

?Would you like to talk about it??

Hiro reached for a cup of hot water and dipped an infusing basket

filled with herbal tea into it. ?I just had the feeling that something was

wrong.?

?What do you mean by ?something was wrong???

?It?s hard to say. It was just a little nagging feeling I had.?

?It was enough to rouse you from sleep and put a loaded gun in

your hand,? Clay observed.

?I can?t explain it Mister Clay, not even to myself. All I know is

that I won?t allow any harm to come to Ranma or Akane.?

?You feel it too then? The impression that some disaster hangs

over them??

Hiro paled. ?I don?t know about a disaster, but I do kinda think

they?re in danger. What do you think??

?I agree that they are in danger, Hiro. Unfortunately the source of

that danger has yet to reveal itself. When it does we may be too late.?

?I?ll die before I let anything happen to either of them,? Hiro said

sternly.

?Let?s hope it doesn?t come to that. But let us also take certain

measures to prevent it as well.?

Nabiki wasn?t sure when she had dozed off, but she awoke with a

start.

The train is slowing down...

She ventured a peek out of the door. They were in the middle of

nowhere.

Uh oh...

?Get up you two!? She hissed. Ukyo and Kuno opened their eyes

in surprise.

?What is it?? Ukyo asked groggily.

Kuno didn?t wait for an answer. His sword was drawn in his hand as

he crept to the door.

?The train is slowing down but there?s nothing in sight,? Nabiki

supplied. She drew the Marakov from behind her back.

They heard the faint sounds of rotor wash, a sound they were all

too well accustomed to hearing. Nabiki looked furtively to Kuno, who

nodded solemnly in reply to her unspoken question. She pulled the slide

back on the Marakov, noting that the hammer was ready to drop as the

slide sprang forward. She kept her finger on the trigger guard as Kuno

had instructed.

?We must flee whilst the train remains in motion,? Kuno said to

them.

?Ready when you are,? Ukyo replied.

Nabiki was wondering if she should breathe.

The door slammed open violently before them. A man in an oilskin

longcoat and armed with a shotgun trotted along with the train outside.

His eyes widened as he saw the three of them ready to spring out. His

shotgun came up to bear on them.

?Vuyeh vagon?!?

Nabiki settled on a screaming exhale and jerked the trigger.

The Marakov barked once, a bright orange fireball spouting from

the muzzle as the casing spat from the receiver. The 7.65mm round

crashed through the wooden wall of the boxcar in a spray of splinters.

The man ducked by reflex after the fact, he wasn?t expecting them to

have a gun with them!

The second?s delay cost him his life. Kuno managed a stiff armed

half swing from his crouched stance and opened the man?s throat with

a gleam of starlight against the blade. The man?s eyes blazed in

surprise as he clutched at his rent flesh and he dropped to his knees.

His other hand tensed on the trigger of his shotgun. The weapon

roared a fierce report that ripped into the walls and steel wheels of

the boxcar in a shower of sparks.

Kuno sprang out of the train with Ukyo and Nabiki close behind.

Shouts rang out ahead of them, and the sounds of boots sliding on

gravel could be heard from the opposite side. The three dashed for

the shelter of trees growing along the tracks.

? What was that!? Who?s firing? ? Nicolai demanded.

? Idiot! ? Fyodor barked in reply. ? It is them! ? He brought his

AK-74 up to his shoulder and made a trotting advance down the tracks,

keeping the rifle ready to bear. The rest of the party followed behind

on either side of the tracks.

? Get the helicopter airborne to find them and give support! ?

Fyodor called back to Nicolai, never taking his eyes from peering

down the length of his rifle as he moved. Nicolai stumbled a reply

and ran back to the helicopter.

? Nightvision! ? One of the men cried. ? They ran into the woods

towards the river! ?

The remainder of the party dropped nightvision glasses over their

eyes. All except Fyodor. He kept his attentions on the side of the tracks.

He leaped casually over the now deceased but still twitching body of

the fallen Ukrainian and bore right into the woods.

He could see their shadows ahead of him plunging through the

shrubs and trees. His rifle crackled with a short burst of automatic fire.

It was an impossible shot given the relative motions and all the cover,

but he felt he could shake them up and force them to make a mistake.

Ukyo felt the bullet zip past her ear before she heard the rifle?s

report. It bored through a tree in front of her path effortlessly. Another

round struck the ground between her feet, making her skip a step in

fright.

Nabiki was right behind her and they nearly collided as Ukyo

slowed down. She reached out and grabbed at Ukyo?s shoulder,

pulling her to the left to follow as Kuno changed course. Another of

Fyodor?s men fired a burst, and the report was enough to make them

utter brief cries of surprise. That no bullets came close was of no

comfort.

Kuno led the way. It sickened him to think that he must run, but

didn?t Musashi Miyamoto himself say it was foolish to fight an enemy

on his terms? He also felt himself responsible for the lives of Nabiki

and Ukyo, and that their safety must subordinate his desires to engage

the foe.

? This way! Towards the river! ? Fyodor called out. ? Boris and

Igor sweep to the left two hundred meters; Anton and Pavel to the right.

Work your way towards the middle when you reach the river! ?

He was close now, only forty meters behind. He could hear their

desperate panting breaths above the sounds of his own thrashing though

the underbrush. He would drive them towards the river. If they broke to

the right or left before they reached the Dniester his two flanking parties

would catch them up in their sweeps.

Then I will kill them.

The helicopter beat at the air above him. The machine gunner had

infrared glasses that would catch the invisible reflected light of the IR

searchlight mounted under the aircraft?s nose. The gunner had little

chance of hitting them unless they stumbled into a clearing, but the

rain of lead from above would only add to their desperation.

As if on cue the gunner opened up. A graceful arc of green sparks

snaked down from above as the tracers did their work. The woods

crackled satisfyingly under the impacts.

The woods exploded around them, throwing strips of shredded bark,

twigs and branches, and the wet sticky remains of mutilated leaves in

their faces. Kuno jinked to the right to avoid a second burst that lit up

the ground before them in vicious green light.

?Cowards!? He bellowed. His impotent rage was nearly boiling over.

The helicopter circled away from them to make another sweep.

Machine gun fire ripped into the woods farther away. Kuno snorted in

derision for the crew.

The fools have naught but an idea of our presence.

The Dniester River lay before them, sandy banks gleaming silver

in the moonlight. The far side of the river was almost a hundred meters

distant. The current didn?t appear to be very swift.

They could make such a fording, he thought. Even fair Ukyo

if Nabiki assists her.

?Go!? He ordered them, pushing them towards the river with his

left arm even as he raised his blade high with his right.

Nabiki stopped short of the water and spun around on her heels.

Ukyo stopped as well, falling to her knees to catch her breath, and

cursing the weakness that afflicted her.

?What?!?

?Cross the river Nabiki Tendo! Take fair Ukyo and go!? He shot

back past teeth clenched in anticipation.

Nabiki knew what Kuno intended but found herself asking anyway.

?What about you?? She cried.

Kuno took his stance and waited for Fyodor and the others.

?I shall face them,? he declared tonelessly.

?Stop with the damn samurai drama and come on!? Nabiki pleaded.

She could hear the thrashing of the underbrush as Fyodor and the rest

closed with them. Her feet wanted to take her into the cold Dniester

and perhaps escape. Her mind willed them still -at least for the moment.

Kuno was adamant. In the distance the train whistle made an awful

plaintive cry.

Nabiki flinched at the sound. Kuno stood fast.

?I have supp?d full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my

slaughterous thoughts, cannot once start me!? And so ?Make all our

trumpets speak; give them all breath -those clamorous harbingers of

blood and death!??

Nabiki clutched at his arm to drag him into the river. He threw

her off, sending her splashing into the icy Dniester with Ukyo.

Tears of desperation welled at the corners of her eyes as she saw

them burst from the trees with their rifles ready. Kuno charged them,

sword raised at high guard.

?Kuuuuunnnnooooooo!!!? She cried.

The kendoist?s blade flashed with gorgeous brilliance. Fyodor?s

men stopped short in momentary awe of Kuno?s charge, hearts?

quailing with his powerful and incomprehensible words.

?Before my body I throw my warlike shield! Lay on MacDuff,

and damn?d be him that first cries ?Hold, enough!??

He brought his sword down upon Igor, cleaving him from crown

to crotch in a stroke that rang of steel on bone. Igor?s instant and

bloody demise jolted the rest of them into action. Fyodor raised his

AK-74 right to Kuno?s head as the swordsman slashed Boris? belly

open with his next stroke.

The Ukrainian?s finger tensed on the trigger of his rifle.

The sand erupted in a huge geyser of gritty silver all about them.

Rifles barked spasmodically in the confusion, voices gasped for

breath as they cried out in panic. A roar and a flash filled their ears

and blinded their eyes, driving them back into the trees with such

ferocity that they were struck blind, deaf, and dumb.

Fyodor lay in the brush not three meters from where Kuno fell.

His rifle lay across his chest. His right thigh throbbed where a

panicked shot from Pavel had sent an armor piercing bullet clean

through.

Because he was the only one not wearing nightvision glasses, he

was the only one not blinded by the flash. He could hear the muted

gasps of pain and fright from his men in the woods around him.

He tried to answer the question of what had happened to them.

Had one of his men tried to kill the swordsman with a grenade?

More likely the swordsman severed the release spoon on one

of Igor?s grenades with his stroke and set it off that way...

Nabiki fell back into the water next to Ukyo. At first she thought

a Russian grenade had exploded in their midst, and that all them, Kuno

included, had been killed. Her throat stung and her eyes smarted with

grief.

Then she saw him.

He was walking on the water. Long pale hair flowed from his

shoulders with the wind. He was cloaked in weathered grey. A

broadsword hung at his side without scabbard, the blade flashing

with pearlescent light under the moon.

He stepped onto the ruined bank of the river with easy measured

steps. The body of Tatewaki Kuno lay at his feet as he stopped. He

looked down at the fallen man and stooped casually to retrieve the

sword from where it lay upon the churned sand.

?W-Who is that?? Ukyo whispered frightfully.

Nabiki had no answer for her.

The man studied the blade fondly, approving of it?s strength and

keen edge.

Fyodor looked up and saw the man. His eyes widened in shock.

This cannot be! Him?

The man took note of his presence and regarded him with a

reproachful look. Fyodor felt his head grow heavy and his vision

watered. He struggled to bring his rifle up to shoot the man, but his

weapon weighed a ton in his grasp. With an unintelligible curse he

sank into the brush and was still.

The man turned then to look upon Ukyo and Nabiki, who huddled

together in the shallow icy water. They saw his face then, and it was

beautiful and terrible to behold. He smiled so viciously their hearts

started in their chests.

It was the last thing they saw before darkness swept them away.

Chapter Three

Dawn came to Maes Howe early as promised. Ranma stirred awake

to the sounds of men bitching about the chill morning outside the tent.

Their voices and the clatter of aluminum mess gear stirred memories

of the recent past.

He looked to his side. Akane was there, fast asleep, and comely

even with mussed hair. Her arm lay lightly across his chest. He was

warm and cozy beneath the sleeping bag spread and the cold hard

ground was insulated from him by a nice foam mattress.

This is not Korea, he reminded himself. More than once in

the last year he had awakened tired and cold in his hole to the sleeping

form of Ryoga Hibiki. Ryoga was usually in need of a shave and had

several days worth of dirt and grime smudged on his face.

He decided it was too cozy to leave just yet. Another hour of

sleep couldn?t hurt, he thought to himself. It won?t be any big

deal to skip breakfast today.

That decided, he fell back asleep.

Hiro Ohata slapped at the tent flap some time later. Ranma and

Akane were both slow to rise. Hiro continued.

?What is it?? Akane growled.

?You should probably get up now,? Hiro replied.

?What time is it?? Ranma asked groggily.

?Quarter past eight. I had the cooks save you some breakfast, but

you?d better get going. We?re supposed to go inside the hill in forty-

five minutes.?

?Okay, okay, we?re up already,? Ranma muttered.

?Okay, see you in a few minutes then.? The sounds of Hiro?s

retreating footsteps followed.

Ranma yawned once and scratched at his head. He looked at

Akane as he did so.

?Good morning sleepy head.?

She made a face at him.

?You should see yourself,? she threw back with a smirk.

?I?ll admit, you aren?t as bad as waking up to Ryoga every morning.

Or Kuno or Hiro for that matter.?

She raised an eyebrow at him.

?Well you?re softer and smell nicer for starters,? he continued.

She sat up and rolled out from the bed. She stretched her arms

and looked out of the window flap.

?We must be the last ones up,? she remarked.

Ranma threw on a pair of baggy black trousers and his black

Chinese shirt. He stepped into his worn slippers and pulled on his

camouflage jacket as Akane rifled through her bag for something to

wear.

?Hurry up,? he said to her on his way out of the tent.

?Just a moment,? she returned, still looking.

?If we miss this ?event? thing because you were trying to figure out

what to wear I?ll...? He left his threat open, clenched his fists for a

second, and then continued outside.

Akane decided not to press him for details. She had no desire to

fight with him at the moment because she was in a good mood in spite

of her fatigue and didn?t want to ruin it.

Strike one, Ranma.

With a sigh she found an outfit that would suffice.

Ranma found Hiro, who directed him to the pavilion. Two covered

aluminum mess kits sat by the edge of the fire pit in the shelter of stones.

He gathered the two kits out of the ashes and brushed them off with a

rag.

?They?re nice and warm, but they?ve been sitting awhile,? Hiro said

to him.

?Why didn?t you wake us up earlier??

?Come on Saotome, you know sleep always has first priority over

eating.?

Ranma nodded. Another lesson learned in war.

?Besides,? Hiro continued?I was a little worried that Akane-chan

would get violent if I came for you so early. She?s cute, but dangerous.?

?Tell me about it,? Ranma muttered. He opened up his mess kit and

took a look. Pancakes and bacon with some scrambled eggs. Three

hours old made it look less than appetizing. But he?d seen and eaten

worse.

?It?s much better fresh off the griddle,? Hiro noted. ?Syrup?s over

there if you need it.?

?This is fine,? Ranma replied.

Akane walked up and sat next to him at the table. Hiro opened up

her kit and offered her some flatware. She looked at the food, and

then to Ranma, who was wolfing down his portion.

?And you give my cooking a hard time?? She asked incredulously.

Ranma answered her between bites.

?Yours looks like this right away.?

Her fists clenched, but no blows fell.

Strike two!

She ignored the comment. Hiro had backed away several paces just

in case. Ranma kept eating.

?Ya know the faster you eat it the less you have to taste it,? he

remarked to Hiro.

?Words from our Drill Instructors,? Hiro added from what he

guessed to be a safe distance.

?I learned it long before I got drafted,? Ranma said, looking at

Akane.

?STRIKE THREE!!!?

Hiro watched Akane leave. He was sure he saw steam (or was it

smoke?) wafting from her ears. He looked back to Ranma, who was

now wearing Akane?s breakfast, tin and all, on his head. Scrambled

eggs crumbled down his brow as he sat there in silence.

?You know Saotome, there is something to be said for peaceful

coexistence. Especially when your current condition requires her close

proximity. Know what I mean??

?Aw this is nothin?,? Ranma replied from beneath his bacon and

pancake hat.

?Why do you do this to yourself??

Ranma shrugged. ?I dunno. Maybe I like her that way...?

?You need help.?

?You?re probably right.?

Hiro collected Akane?s breakfast from Ranma?s head and threw it

into a trash bag. ?Come on, we don?t want miss our ride up to the hill.?

?It?s not that far to walk. Besides, I think Akane?s getting into the

last Range Rover.?

?Well then, let?s start hoofing it, shall we?? Hiro conceded.

Ukyo awoke with a start.

Something?s wrong here...

For one thing she was lying in a comfortable bed. At first she

thought that she had awakened from a nightmare to find that she was

safe at home. The gentle side to side rocking of the room and the

mournful cry of seagulls outside dispelled such thoughts quickly.

She sat up in bed and looked around. Nabiki lay asleep next to her

in the large bed, and beyond her lay Tatewaki Kuno. The room was

small, dominated by the bed and leaving just a little area beyond for

fine crafted furniture such as chairs, a low table, and several chests of

drawers. The walls were filled with paintings of the sea and ships and

other nautical themes. It occurred to her then that they were on some

sort of yacht.

Upon getting out of bed she realized that she was naked.

?Hey!? She cried, a little too loudly perhaps.

Nabiki stirred. A sleepy eye opened and tried to adjust for the soft

glow of light that filtered past drapes over the portholes.

?Hello, what?s this?? She asked tiredly.

Ukyo draped her long fall of hair over her nude form.

?I wish I knew. I just woke up myself.?

?Where are your clothes??

Ukyo looked about her furtively. ?I wish I knew.?

Nabiki threw off the layers of fine silk sheets and cashmere wool

comforter. She too was naked. ?Okay, now where are my clothes??

?Why don?t you ask Kuno?? Ukyo grinned.

With a furious blush Nabiki looked over her shoulder to where

Kuno slept. She had thrown back the sheets enough to reveal Kuno?s

bare chest and taut belly. She noted that the intricate tattoo work that

concealed his gunshot wound scars had been completed. Without

venturing further investigation, Nabiki concluded that Kuno was

probably in the buff as well.

?Just what?s going on here??

Ukyo padded across the room to look around.

?You tell me. What?s the last thing you remember??

Nabiki thought for a moment.

?I remember being chased by the Russians to that river,? she began.

She looked at Kuno, who was deeply unconscious but otherwise looking

very healthy and whole. ?And Kuno here pulling his ?noble sacrifice? to

let us escape, but after that I don?t remember much at all.?

?Me neither,? Ukyo added. ?But someone must have rescued us,

because I don?t think those Russians would be treating us this well. Do

you realize that I?m clean??

Nabiki gave her a puzzled look.

Ukyo gestured to her lithe form. Her abundance of bare skin fairly

glowed in the soft light. Her long mane of brown-black hair was shiny

and luxuriant. ?I?m not all dirty and grimy anymore. And my skin

smells like lilac scented bath oil.?

Nabiki sniffed her arm above the wrist. A faint scent of jasmine

tickled her nose. Her skin felt silky and pampered. ?I've been bathed

as well.?

Kuno must have heard them talking in his sleep, because he groaned

once and then sat up. His eyes widened in momentary surprise at

beholding Ukyo and Nabiki au natural.

?If I could write the beauty of your eyes and in fresh numbers

number all your graces, the age to come would say, This poet lies;

such heavenly touches ne?er touch?d earthly faces!??

?It?s not our faces you?re staring at!? Ukyo cried.

She and Nabiki clobbered him with a few pillows close at hand,

there wasn?t anything heavier available within easy reach. As Kuno

was pelted down they grabbed at the bedspread and sheets and pulled

them close to their bodies.

Kuno meanwhile lay back on the bed and sighed dreamily.

?To think that such nubile visions of loveliness lay within my

sheltering arms and sweet embrace! Great is the pity that I cannot

recall such heady pleasures...?

Ukyo and Nabiki arched eyebrows, looking at each other to

confirm what the other was thinking. Both women turned livid and

cast withering looks at Kuno. The kendoist maintained his dreamy

countenance.

?WE DID NOT SLEEP WITH YOU!!!? They yelled in furious

unison.

A noise at the aft door startled them. A tall man in loose white

trousers and a blue and white striped shirt stepped through the door

from the aft ladder. His long pale hair was tied in a pony tail with

a yellow ribbon. His pale skin had a silvery glint to it in the sunlight

that streamed through the portholes.

?I see you are awake,? he observed evenly. They found they could

understand him, although he didn?t seem to be speaking Japanese.

?You appear to be none the worse for wear.?

Nabiki pressed the white sheet against her chest, a little taken aback

with the man?s entrance. Ukyo fell in behind Nabiki and watched warily.

Kuno sat up in the bed and waited. He seemed to be the only one of the

three who wasn?t concerned.

?I suppose introductions would be in order. Perhaps an explanation

could follow, but we shall see. I go by many names, but you may call

me Aerandir. And you are??

Nabiki wasn?t sure what to say. It was Ukyo who introduced

herself first.

?Ukyo Kuonji,? she said evenly.

Nabiki looked over her shoulder to Ukyo, who shrugged weakly in

reply. Nabiki sighed.

?Nabiki Tendo.?

Aerandir looked to Kuno.

?My name is Tatewaki Kuno, but you may call me Blue Thunder!?

?Well said,? Aerandir replied. ?If you are hungry, I have prepared a

light supper in the galley. You may take it in here or up on deck if you

like.?

?Where is here?? Nabiki asked.

?At the moment you are aboard my ship, Kelebros, which sails for

the Sea of Marmara and then onto the Aegean Sea.?

?Where are we going??

?I shall take you to a place where you will be safe from your

pursuers. From there you must choose your own paths,? Aerandir

replied. He gestured aft to the galley. ?Come and eat, you are half

starved.?

Nabiki gestured to herself and Ukyo.

?Where are our clothes??

Aerandir rolled his eyes mirthfully.

?Forgive me, Nabiki Tendo!? He chuckled. ?I had forgotten.

They are still quite damp from your excursion in the Dniester River.?

He gestured to a standing wardrobe of polished sandalwood. ?You

will find suitable garments in there. I shall await you on deck in the

meanwhile with supper.?

He closed the door behind them, and his soft footsteps could be

heard moving up a ladder aft.

Nabiki looked to the wardrobe. She pulled open the doors to find

an array of fine woman's clothing within.

?Not bad!? Nabiki cried aloud. She pulled something gauzy and

sensual from the rack. She held it up to herself, decided it was too racy

for the occasion, and put it back.

Ukyo looked inside as well.

?I?ll say,? she remarked.

?I hope he doesn?t wear this stuff,? Nabiki added. She pulled a

white summer dress from the rack and set it against herself. ?I think I

might prefer a pair of tight blue jeans and a blouse over a dress, but it

looks nice at least.?

Ukyo agreed and took a short frock of soft purple velvet and white

hose stockings for herself. A pair of matching purple slippers lay on the

bottom of the wardrobe loosely wrapped in velvet.

Kuno watched them in silence, but even then they felt the weight of

his eyes upon them. They turned about on their heels and leveled a

second withering gaze at him.

?Oh Kuno-baby, wouldst thou be so gallant and allow us a moment

of privacy?? Nabiki asked in a saccharine voice.

Kuno turned around to face the door while they changed into their

clothes.

Ukyo and Nabiki stepped on deck from below. Their new garments

fit them well, and Aerandir said as much to them. He had several chairs

arranged for them on the afterdeck, but their eyes instead turned to the

ship they were embarked aboard.

She was a tall masted ketch, swift and daring of line. Her sails were

slightly silvered in the light, and her decks were made of a wood so

paled and polished that they too might have been inlaid with silver.

The ship?s brightwork was all brilliantly polished brass and (once more)

silvered fittings. How such fragile metal did not tarnish in the sea air

was lost upon them.

Even more wondrous about the ship was that there wasn?t a single

soul to be found save for themselves and Aerandir. No crew called out,

nor did anyone tend to the lines and the sails. The cries of gulls were

the only voices raised against the wind.

?How I love the sea,? Aerandir said fondly to them. Kelebros

pitched smoothly through the waves, and cool spindrift dewed the

faces of Ukyo and Nabiki. ?A mariner?s life is often lonely; how

fortunate that I have such exquisite company! Come and eat with me.?

They sat with him then, and he offered both cups of cool wine to

drink. Ukyo sipped at hers, finding it to be sweet and sustaining. Nabiki

drank as well when Ukyo complimented the vintage. Aerandir served

them strips of warm doughy bread and a crock of soft cheese. Several

spicy smelling sausages steamed in a white tereen painted with blue

seahorses.

Kuno came up on deck as they ate. He was clad in a short dark-grey

robe which he wore open at the chest, and a pair of loose fitting trousers

of matching color. He had found his sword apparently, and he wore it at

his side.

?Come and join us!? Aerandir called to him.

Kuno looked about the ship as Ukyo and Nabiki had done before

him.

?Truly a fine vessel of sail, it reminds me of the Kuno Family yacht.?

Nabiki and Ukyo rolled their eyes at the reminder of their shipwreck

in said yacht.

Aerandir looked pleasantly surprised.

?You are a mariner then yourself??

Nabiki stifled a laugh and Ukyo covered her mouth with a napkin to

hide her grin.

?Of no small accord,? Kuno replied proudly.

Both women lost control this time and fell to laughing.

Aerandir chuckled?your companions seem to think differently.?

Kuno was taken aback. ?That fell squall gusted up from the very

depths of hell! Were I not so skilled in seamanship we would all be

lost to the deeps now!?

?I believe you my friend, now come and join us at the table!?

Aerandir cried, and offered him a chair. He gave sly grins to Ukyo and

Nabiki as they sniggered a little more quietly.

His honor believed intact, Kuno took his place at the table and ate.

When all three had their fill, Aerandir offered them tea and a small tray

of chocolates. He popped one into his mouth with a smile.

?These are the last of them I?m afraid, but you are quite welcome

to them.?

? Captain, Radar reports small craft bearing 0-2-8 true. Course

is 1-9-5, speed 15 knots, range six-thousand meters. ?

The Captain acknowledged his Officer of the Deck (OOD) and

stepped out from the bridge to the starboard lookout post. A signalman

with a pair of binoculars swept across the sky and the water in a

standard search pattern.

? Angle on the bow is port 5-0 degrees, ? the lookout declared.

He took his own binoculars and scanned in the direction of the

target. It was a ketch under full sails. He could see four people seated

on the afterdeck. There were no markings on the sails or the hull, and

there was no flag flying.

? Ask Radar why they didn?t detect this ship sooner, ? the Captain

called over his shoulder. He continued his scan.

? Radar reports a very small return signature on the craft, indicating

that the hull is made of wood or fiberglass. ? The OOD reported.

? There are no markings that I can see, ? the Captain said without

acknowledging the report. ? Have a gunnery crew man the forward

40mm mount and muster the boarding party with Lieutenant Borodin

at the number one whaleboat davit. ?

? Aye aye, Captain! ? The OOD replied. He began issuing orders

inside the bridge. The crackle of his thick Ukrainian accent echoed

throughout the ship over the general announcing circuit intercom.

? Set up a plot on this contact, designated...? ?

The OOD consulted a contact summary.

? Master 1-9 sir, ? he informed.

? Yes. Plot Master 1-9. Get Radio to hail them to heave to and

prepare to be boarded. ?

? Aye aye, Captain! ?

The Captain studied the ketch as it cut through the water. There

was something very odd about it, but he couldn?t tell what it was.

? Contact Master 1-9 Closest Point of Approach in approximately

two minutes: bearing 0-0-8 true, range 1500 meters. ? A quartermaster

declared.

The Captain grunted in acknowledgment. ? Slow to All Ahead

Two-thirds. Helm ease your rudder to right ten degrees, steady course

0-2-0. ?

There is something very wrong about this ketch.

As the Black Sea Fleet Krivak class frigate wheeled about to

intercept the ketch he realized what it was.

? Mark wind speed and direction! ? He barked.

? Wind is from the South by West at ten knots, Captain! ? An

enlisted rating called from the pilothouse.

He looked through his binoculars again. The ketch was under full

sail and slicing swiftly through the waves straight as an arrow.

Impossible!

? That ship is moving under sail and against the wind at fifteen

knots?! ? The Captain cried aloud in disbelief. ? He hasn?t tacked

once! ?

? Captain, port lookouts report a heavy fog bank closing in within

two-thousand meters, ? the OOD informed. He had his own binoculars

trained on the ketch as well.

The Captain looked away to watch the thick wall of vapor move in

with the quickening wind. He couldn?t believe his ill fortune.

? Slow to One-third. Station the reduced visibility detail. Radiate as

necessary for safe navigation, ? he ordered. He looked forward to the

fo?c?sle and the 40mm gun mount. The gun crew was readying their

weapon. Below him at the whaleboat davit the boarding party was

standing by. His signalman flashed his 30cm signal light at the ketch.

? Has Radio contacted Master 1-9? ? He asked through clenched

teeth. He didn?t want to lose them in the approaching fog, and he was

running out of time.

? No Captain, there is no response on any civil maritime

frequencies, ? came the reply.

He looked to his signalman, who shook his head and continued to

flash his lamp at them.

? Order the 40mm crew to fire one warning shot across their bow. ?

? Aye aye, Captain! ? The OOD replied.

The fog bank rolled over the frigate. Droplets of dew condensed on

the cool steel plating and all visibility was lost. The Captain cursed aloud.

? All Stop! ? He ordered. The telegraphs chimed in the pilothouse

as the Engineroom acknowledged the order. The frigate slowed in the

water, making almost no headway within moments.

? Radar reports losing contact with Master 1-9; last known position

bearing 0-2-5, course 1-9-5, speed 15 knots, range two-thousand

meters. ?

The Captain was livid.

? Are you serious?! ? He bellowed. ? How could you lose them

only two thousand meters away? ?

The OOD had no answer for his Captain, and so he ducked back

into the pilothouse and started yelling at the radarmen over the phone.

?Where did this fog come from?? Ukyo asked in surprise.

Aerandir made a dismissive gesture with his hand. ?These things

happen in the Black Sea in June.?

?Are we safe?? Nabiki asked.

?Of course we are,? Aerandir laughed. ?I know these waters well. In

fact I have every confidence that this fog will lift soon enough.? At this

he slipped a small flute out of his tunic and played them a cheery tune.

They listened to him play for awhile, and he sang for them between

measures. They didn?t understand the words, but they seemed to speak

of long ago voyages in tall ships of the line and of the brave mariners

who crewed them. He sang of fighting great raging storms and of the

heartache of being at sea for long months. Other songs were bawdy and

raccous and lifted their spirits with each tap of his foot to the beat.

Day passed into night, and so they slipped through the fog into the

Marmaran Sea. The wide Aegean lay beyond, and the three of them

were carried on over the waves. Aerandir was wonderful company,

and they were at peace.

Chapter Four

Maes Howe lay shrouded in the early morning gloom of Orkney

Island. Ranma could just make out the great sixteen foot high slab of

sandstone that he and Akane had found last night. Clay called it a

?barnstone?, and Ranma remembered Hiro reading to him that during the

Winter Solstice the sun would set directly over the stone; and the

last rays of light would stream through an opening above the entrance

to the mound.

The other Range Rovers were parked along a wall of hard packed

earth that ringed the hill. Several men checked the arrangement of

Ferguson?s boxes under the supervision of Ferguson himself. Ranma

could see Akane standing with McFogg and Katy Price at the entrance.

Ferguson waved as they approached.

? Thought you two came in one of the other Rovers, ? he remarked.

? We decided to walk. Good exercise. ? Hiro replied.

? Well just give me a few more moments and I?ll join you. ? He

checked one last run of optic cable and nodded his approval to the

men.

? The relays between Stenness and Brodgar are just coming up

now, hopefully they?ll answer a lot of questions today, ? Ferguson

said to them as they waited.

? What questions are those? ? Hiro asked.

? According to Clay and a few other paranormal researchers, the

three megalithic sites here on Orkney Island; that is Maes Howe, and

the stone circles of Stenness and Brodgar, are all interconnected. The

circles acted as observatories for events at Maes Howe. Stenness

seemed to be aligned for the Winter Solstice, while Brodgar seemed to

be aligned strictly for lunar events. ? He looked to the west and

frowned.

? Of course both circles are in a sad state. Stenness has only four

of the original twelve stones standing, and Brodgar?s enormous sixty

stone observatory is now only a damaged thirty-six. But what can

you say for being around almost five thousand years? ?

It was Ranma?s turn to frown. He had caught most of what

Ferguson had said, and it seemed a little confusing.

? If this place is for stuff that happens in winter, why are we here

in the summer? ? He asked.

? Good question, ? Ferguson answered with a smile. ? All three

sites are line junctions, but the two circles also seem to funnel energy

towards Maes Howe. I have sensors at the two circles and along the line

paths to Maes Howe. If we get lucky and catch the next event here, the

data will go a long way to describing the transmission of electromagnetic

energy throughout the Earth. Clay has a more mystical stake in this, but

for me and the others it will mean an insight into the Earth?s internal

makeup. ?

? Sorry I asked, ? Ranma muttered lamely.

? I know it seems pretty abstract, but the more we learn about this

energy that courses through the Earth, the better our chances of perhaps

harnessing it. Think about it; all that energy, nice and clean, for nothing.

Forget fusion power, we?ll tame the Earth itself! ?

Ranma wasn?t sure he agreed, but kept his opinions to himself.

They walked up the hill to join McFogg, Katy, and Akane. Katy

seemed to be in better spirits than she had the night before. McFogg

puffed idly on his pipe and gazed across the valley and the glittering

lake. In the distance could be seen Bettie?s Dare, and sitting atop her

were Durango and D-Day. They seemed to be fishing. Akane was

studying the small hole atop the entrance to the mound.

Ranma came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.

She started as he touched her, and spun around to face him.

?Jumpy, aren?t we?? He teased.

?Enjoy your breakfast?? She shot back.

?It wasn?t bad. The pancakes were a little heavy,? he replied

nonplused.

?Not as heavy as your head!?

Hiro pushed past them and entered the opening to the mound.

?Will you two quit for a second? Come on!? He said to them in

passing.

Akane looked into the dim opening, and then to Ranma.

?You first.?

Ranma held up his hands in protest. ?Oh no, ladies first. Even

tomboys count here.?

Akane sizzled.

Hiro stuck his head back out of the opening. ?Cut it out already!?

?Butt out!? She shot back at him with raised fist.

?Butting out!? Hiro said, and ducked back inside.

McFogg and Katy stepped past and ducked into the hole. Ferguson

was close behind with an armload of instrumentation.

?Go already,? Ranma told her when the rest of them had entered.

Aside from a few techs, they were now alone outside.

?Okay, I?m going.?

Ranma reached out his hand and took hers as she went in. She

squeezed it in appreciation. He followed right behind her.

The opening was barely four and half feet high, causing them to

walk hunched over as they went. The tunnel was dimly lit by a string

of battery powered lamps nailed into the stones that lined the way.

Ranma noted that the stones were so old and worn that there was no

discernible gap between them.

The tunnel proceeded a good fifty feet into the mound before

opening up into a comparatively spacious chamber. The ceiling was at

least sixteen feet high. Stones lined the walls, floor, and ceiling. The

chamber was bare except for some spray painted graffiti along the walls.

The soft glow of morning light filtered through the ?letterbox? hole

above the tunnel and into the chamber, but was certainly no comparison

to the light which must have flooded in on the eve of the Winter Solstice.

Inside the chamber was an array of sensory gear and four Ferguson?s

boxes spaced evenly about the circumference. Clay was standing on the

opposite side of the chamber lost in reflection. The place had an air of

antiquity that was almost stifling.

? We may never know what went on here all those years ago, ?

McFogg mused as he took in the atmosphere of the place.

? Stories of this being a place where demons were summoned getting

to you old man? ? Clay joked.

? Not at all Mister Clay, ? McFogg replied. He took a thoughtful puff

on his pipe and blew out a smoke ring.

Ferguson took some data from a portable Kirlian unit while they

waited.

? Levels of energy are slightly above established baselines, but I

wouldn?t go crying ?fire? just yet. ?

McFogg checked his pocket watch. ? When is the event predicted

to occur? ?

Katy consulted a steno pad. ? Approximately twenty minutes from

now. ?

Ferguson snorted in contempt. Katy gave a dirty look in return.

? No time for renewing old arguments, ? McFogg cautioned. ? I

think we all understand that the model isn?t quite as accurate as we?d

hoped. ?

? That?s putting it mildly, ? Ferguson said in an acidic tone.

? If you don?t believe in the model than why are you here? ? Katy

asked with equal venom.

? I believe in Clay?s hunches more than the bloody computer my

dear. ?

Katy cut her next remark short of drawing breath with a look from

McFogg. The group remained silent, waiting. The chamber now seemed

more a burial place with the silence.

They waited over an hour this way, saying little, hoping.

Ferguson checked his sensors again. A puzzled expressed crossed his

face. He sniffed at the air, eventually looking at Ranma, Akane, Hiro.

? Is it just me, or does someone smell like bacon in here? ?

Akane burst out laughing, which instantly broke the tension. Hiro had

a good laugh as well. Ranma decided to take a step outside for some air,

mostly to conceal his furious blush of embarrassment.

After two more hours had passed with nerve-wracking uneventfulness,

the rest of them joined Ranma outside. Katy made small talk with

McFogg while Clay walked about lost in thought. Hiro dozed with his

back against the side of the mound. Ferguson made periodic reports

over the radio with Ames and West at Stenness and Brodgar respectively.

Akane stood by Ranma?s side and said nothing. Occasionally she would

giggle softly at him, but he didn?t bother to say anything in return.

It was almost noon now, and Heironymous Durango and D-Day

walked up hill to meet them. Durango had a cigar dangling from his lip.

D-Day was nursing a beer.

? Hey, we done already? ? Durango asked.

? It hasn?t even happened yet, ? Hiro said tiredly from the ground.

? Any ideas on when? ?

Katy gave him a derisive look. ? Why, are you in some kind of

hurry? ?

? No, I just wanna know if I have time to slip into Kirkwall for a

bite to eat and a pint or two of that hard cider over at the Red Groom

pub. ?

? I don?t see any problem with that, ? McFogg said evenly. ? Just

bring back a pint or two for me if you go. ?

? I?ll need to borrow a Range Rover, ? Durango added hastily.

? We don?t seem to be using them at the moment, ? McFogg

answered tiredly.

? A done deal! ? Durango crowed. ? Anyone wanna come along? ?

There were no takers.

? Suit yourselves. ?

He started back down the hill with D-Day close behind.

? What a jackass! ? Katy huffed.

? Careful there Miss Price. One might think you were concealing

feelings of attraction towards the old Yank. ? Ferguson teased.

Katy offered him a gesture most decidedly unladylike.

Ranma meanwhile had joined Hiro along the hill for a nap. Akane

took her customary place beside him and yawned tiredly.

?We should have stayed in bed. I?m bored.? She remarked.

?I think you?re right,? Ranma replied. He twiddled idly at his pigtail.

?Hurry up and wait,? Hiro added. ?I thought we got away from that

when we got our discharge papers.?

?You?d think so,? Ranma answered. ?Man, I could be home right

now having one of Kasumi?s lunches. Instead I?m on some island

thousands of kilometers from home waiting for something that might

never come.?

?Chasing the wind my friend. I told you that?s what were doing,

didn?t I??

Akane clicked her tongue. ?Well we can at least make the best of

this.?

?Weren?t you the one who said she was bored just a minute ago??

Ranma asked dryly.

?Yes, but at least I?m bored in a different place than home. Don?t

you get tired of waking up in the same place to the same people and

doing the same things every day??

?After spending ten years of my life wandering around China and

Japan with my old man? No. A little stability in my life is a good thing.?

Akane turned away and looked out to the west and the stone circle

of Brodgar only a mile distant. She hadn?t seen it last night. It was

pretty big, and she could almost make out where the missing or

destroyed stones had once stood. Five thousand years was a very long

time, and she thought about the ancient people who had raised the circle.

?I wonder why they came all the way up here just to watch the stars

and the moon. Aren?t there supposed to be circles further south in

England? Like Stonehenge maybe??

?Huh?...Who?? Ranma and Hiro said together.

Akane frowned. ?You two are such nitwits. I was talking about the

people who built this place.?

?I dunno,? Ranma replied.

?Ditto,? Hiro added with a shrug.

Akane put her hands to her temples and bowed her head. ?I guess I

should have asked the people with a clue. Sorry to bother you.? She got

up and walked over to join Clay.

?No problem! Anytime!? Ranma called out to her. When she didn?t

reply he leaned back against the hill and closed his eyes to snooze.

?Akane seems quite curious about this whole thing,? Hiro observed.

?Yeah, she thinks this is all a big vacation for us,? Ranma observed,

eyes still closed.

?I suppose you could look at it that way.?

?Don?t encourage her. As soon as we?re cured, we?re out of here.?

?Thanks a lot pal. I love you too.?

?That?s not what I mean.?

Hiro sat up and looked at him. ?Well what do you mean then??

?Look, I appreciate everything you and the Professor have done for

us. It?s just that I don?t want Akane to lose sight of why we?re here:

We?re here to put our ki?s back in order so we can live normal lives...?

He drew in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. ?I love her, but I can?t

spend the rest of my life chained to her side. Is that so wrong??

?No, but I can think of far worse people to be ?chained? to for the

rest of my life.?

Ranma shook his head. ?It?s hard to explain. You have to be in my

position I guess.?

?Oh no, my head isn?t as resistant to blunt trauma as yours!?

?Ha ha ha...? He threw up his hands. ?Oh what?s the use? I guess

I?m gonna have to live with it.?

?Buck up Saotome. You?ll find your cure.?

?I hope so Hiro. Man I hope so.?

They sat in silence for awhile longer. McFogg and Katy had a few

of the techs go down to the camp to fetch lunch. Clay and Akane talked

about the stone circles, with Clay sweeping his hands across the valley

explaining the layout to her. Ferguson checked and rechecked his

sensors for lack of anything better to do. Time passed.

Ranma...

?Huh??

He sat up and looked around for the source of the voice. Hiro was

fast asleep beside him. No one else was paying any attention to him.

Ranma...

?What?? He asked aloud to the open air.

Ranma, if you don?t hurry, you?re going to miss it!

?Anazali? Is that you?? He asked. Hiro stirred beside him.

?What?s going on, Saotome??

Ranma Saotome, if you don?t go inside right this moment you?re

going to miss it! Now move!

It was Anazali?s voice all right. Only it was coming from inside his

head. Somehow he wasn?t all that surprised about that point.

He stood up and bounded over to Akane, taking her hand roughly

and pulling her back towards the tunnel opening.

?Hey?! What?s the big idea, Ranma?!? She cried indignantly.

?No time!? He replied. ?We gotta get inside!?

He ducked into the tunnel opening as the others looked on in surprise.

Suddenly one of the portable displays Ferguson carried began chirping

for attention.

? Hey I think we have something! ? He cried.

The radio crackled. ? Are you getting this? ? It was Ames? voice,

very excited.

? Sure am! ? Ferguson replied over the radio. He circled his hands

to some of the techs, who ran down the hill towards the camp. ? Get

those recorders going! ?

McFogg looked to Clay, who pointed at the tunnel where Ranma and

Akane had just entered, and smiled a knowing smile.

Ranma ran as fast as he could down the cramped tunnel. Akane?s

protests went ignored. He wasn?t going to miss this. When they bounded

into the open, he stood there and waited.

?What?s the big idea? I was talking to Mister Clay!? Akane yelled at

him.

?It?s coming!? Ranma yelled back.

?What?s coming?!?

?The thing, the ?event?, whatever you want to call it. It?s coming

real soon.?

?And how do you know this??

Ranma shrugged. ?Trust me.?

? The Brodgar site is reporting high levels of electromagnetic

disturbance, ? Ferguson said as they moved through the narrow tunnel.

? The Stenness site has opened up. I think this it. ?

A voice over the radio squawked in garbled reply.

? BZZZTTTYeah, we?re showing a definite builZZZup in

resonance area and ZZTTKKT frequencies. Everything?s way

abKSSHTZZZT baseline. We?ve got uplink to satcom and

ZZSSKKTZ transmitting. ?

Ferguson acknowledged with a grunt as he bumped into McFogg.

Electromagnetic interference is lousing up the radios...

? So how did Ranma know? ? He asked the Professor.

? Perhaps he?s acquired a certain sensitivity to this activity, ?

McFogg replied.

? Sort of like how animals sense earthquakes? ? Katy asked.

? It?s as good an explanation as any. ?

They arrived in the chamber to find Ranma and Akane standing in

front of the other. Both wore apprehensive expressions on their faces.

Both stood still as statues.

Ferguson swept his portable Kirlian about the chamber.

? Oh yeah, we?ve got a bloody build-up in here all right. ?

? How soon? ? The Professor asked quickly.

? Any time now, ? Ferguson answered. He couldn?t be much more

specific because he didn?t know.

Ranma felt the breeze at his heels, which was odd because there was

little air circulation in the tomb-like chamber before. Then his hair began

to stand on end, and his skin tingled.

Akane?s eyes flashed with worry. She could feel it too.

?Do we have to stand right in the middle?? She asked softly.

?If we want this to work, I think so.? Ranma said in a voice calm

enough to belie his anxiety.

The breeze picked up intensity, becoming a spinning rush of air that

tossed dirt and small bits of debris into a little cyclone around them.

Their hair and clothes billowed up, and it was all they could do to keep

their feet on the ground. Ranma was sure he could see little motes of

light sparkling about Akane. The look on her face told him she could see

the same.

? This one?s huge! ? Ferguson breathed. His words were lost in the

tumult. ? No I mean it! ? He said louder. ? It?s bigger than Nerima by

a factor of three! ?

? You can almost see it! ? Clay added excitedly.

? Look at them! ? Hiro cried, pointing to Ranma and Akane, and

wishing someone would show more concern for them instead of the

sensors.

The wind was now a roaring torrent in the confines of the chamber.

Ranma and Akane were now floating in the eye of the cyclone. It was

McFogg, Ferguson, and the others who now held on for purchase

against the gusts. Katy lost control of herself and began screaming

somewhere between terror and amazement.

They felt lighter than air as they hung there, and time seemed to stop

around them. Akane took hold of Ranma?s hands, and where their skin

tingled it now burned with a power that shots bolts of fire down their

nerves. Even as the gust seemed like it couldn?t get any stronger there

was one last frenzied burst of twisting howling air that hit them both

like a hammer blow.

Their eyes and minds swelled with the sight of a great pillar of soft

golden light that stretched into the heavens. That same warming radiance

filtered across cloudless skies in all directions from a great pyramid of

white stone that they suddenly and inexplicably understood to be a sort

of prism. Their perspective zoomed out away from the great pyramid

and the gorgeous pillar of light to reveal a green island riding a silvered

sea.

Their eyes went dark for a moment, and the image was gone. In it?s

place was a range of mountains that were surrounded by great orchards

of fig and olive trees, oranges and fields of grain. A city rose up from the

plains upon a wide mesa of sandstone and along the steep cliff edge was

a magnificent palace. Carved stone fountains in the form of lions spilled

forth sweet clear water into skillfully painted pools and flowed into

ingeniously crafted aqueducts that carried it throughout the entire palace.

Golden light touched everything in this place and exotic music played for

them as they watched.

This image vanished from their eyes with a roar of the wind, and

they fell roughly to the stone floor of the chamber. Breath was stolen

from them as they struck the freezing cold flagstones. They gasped in

terror and pain as the winds died away around them.

Hiro and Ferguson were at their sides first.

?Saotome! Akane-chan! Are you okay?? Hiro cried.

Ranma lifted his head and drew a stuttering breath. His eyes were

bloodshot, and in fact a trickle of blood ran down his chin from his nose.

?Alhambra...? He said in hoarse croak, and collapsed to the

flagstones again. Frost formed where his moist breath touched the stone.

Akane sat up with a sob. She fell into Katy?s lap as she tried to stand.

? Get Vickers in here at once! ? McFogg bellowed. Vickers was the

group?s physician.

? Come on old bean, ? Ferguson said, helping Ranma sit up again.

? Up we go. ?

?I think I?m gonna be sick,? Ranma said in reply, not caring that

Ferguson didn?t speak Japanese.

Hiro took Ranma from Ferguson and helped him into the corner,

where he heaved a few times with disappointing results.

Dry heaves are the worst... Hiro thought sympathetically.

?You gonna make it??

Ranma nodded weakly. ?Yeah...Remind me not to do that again.?

?Don?t worry, I will. Now wait here for Doctor Vickers.?

?No problem. I?ll just wait here.? He lay his head down on the

ground again, very glad that it was so cold on his face. He waited for

the chamber to stop spinning.

Akane recovered a little faster. She was on her feet and asking

about Ranma. He heard her and waved a limp arm over his head.

Clay stood in the corner and watched patiently.

? Well that was exciting, ? he said quietly. No one heard him.

Ranma was fully recovered by the time Vickers made it up the hill,

which wasn?t long with Hiro prodding him along. The doctor had given

the both of them a quick exam and taken their vitals, which had

returned to normal.

Ranma now sat outside the mound and looked up at the grey sky,

trying to figure out what he had been through. Akane sat next to him

pondering the same. A troubled expression clouded her face. Hiro kept

a vigilant watch over them. The others argued over the data they had

collected and its significance.

Ferguson came up to them after a bit. He had a portable Kirlian in

his hands.

? That was quite a spill you took in there, ? he said to them by way

of greeting.

Ranma nodded in agreement.

? Do you mind if I scan you with this? You were right in the middle

of the biggest nexus surge I?ve ever encountered. Who knows, it might

have set you straight again. ?

Ranma nodded again. Ferguson ran the Kirlian over them and

studied the results.

? Well? ? Akane asked.

? Stand apart from each other now, ? Ferguson instructed. She did

so, and he scanned them individually.

He shook his head.

? I?ve got bad news and I?ve got good news, ? he began. ? The

bad news is you?re still screwed up aura-wise. The good news is that it

doesn?t seem to be as severe as before. Sorry. ?

? It?s not your fault, ? Ranma said evenly. ? We took a chance

and it didn?t work. ? He got up to his feet. ?I?m going to take a walk,

see you in a little while.?

?You want some company?? Hiro asked.

?Nah, I just need a little time to myself. Watch over Akane for me,

okay??

Hiro bowed once. ?Sure thing, man.?

?I don?t need a baby-sitter,? Akane protested.

?I didn?t say you did,? Ranma returned. ?But maybe you could keep

each other company??

Akane realized that he wanted to be alone, and that there was little

point in arguing about it. She decided that she shouldn?t give Hiro a

hard time over it either.

?Have a seat,? she offered him. ?You can tell me army stories about

him.?

Hiro smiled. ?I could probably remember a few worth telling.?

Ranma left them and walked over the top of the mound to the other

side of the hill. He put some distance between himself and the others.

Then he looked around to make sure no one was watching.

?You were right about me not finding a cure,? he said to no one in

particular. Actually he had someone very particular in mind, but he

couldn?t see her. That didn?t mean she wasn?t there, however.

He waited. There was no reply.

?Look, I know you?re watching me, so just cut it out and talk to me.?

Again there was no reply. He began to get angry.

?Are you going to answer me or what??

Give me one reason why I should? Came Anazali?s voice in his

mind.

Ranma spun around to see if he could spot her. There was no one

around that he could see.

?Can?t you just make yourself visible for a few minutes??

Now why would I want to do that?

?Because I?d feel a lot more comfortable talking to someone I can

see.?

Maybe some other time.

?Gee, thanks. Just out of curiosity, why is it that you?re following

me??

I think you?re special.

Ranma snorted derisively. ?I?m touched.?

If you?re going to be so foul tempered, I should probably just be

on my way.

?Whoa! Wait! I?m sorry! Don?t go!?

That?s better... Now what is it that you want to ask me?

?I suppose asking you who you really are would be a bit much??

Something like that.

?Great... How about this: What was it that I was supposed to see in

there??

I don?t know. What did you see?

?I saw this big gold light and a pyramid on some island. Then I saw

this castle in the desert. What?s it supposed to mean??

Anazali was silent in his head for a moment. He could feel her

presence, but she wasn?t answering.

?Well??

The castle is a place you should probably visit soon.

?And the pyramid??

A vision of the past. It is no more.

That came as a surprise to him.

?I take it you know about the pyramid??

Only stories... I was never there.

He got the impression from her that she didn?t want to discuss that

line of conversation any further.

?Okay, how about this then: Why me? Why Akane??

Why what?

?You know what I mean. Why is it that we?re stuck in the middle

of this? Why couldn?t it be one of these guys chasing after these stupid

?events?? They want to study them, not me.?

I?m afraid I can?t answer that question, Ranma.

?Can?t or won?t??

Can?t... I like you Ranma, and it pains me to see you and your

fianc饠go through this. The fact is I had no idea it would be you any

more than you did. It just happened. But now you have a part to play

in this whether you like it or not. I?m here to help you, and if you do

as I instruct, this will be easier for you. If not, well... I?m not sure

what will happen to you. Maybe nothing more than having another curse to

deal with I suppose.

Ranma thought about that for a moment. Anazali came across very

sincerely in his mind about wanting to help him. He decided he should

trust her, at least for the moment.

?And if I go along??

A cure for your affliction. Perhaps more. Have you ever really

wished for something important before?

He thought about his Jusenkyo curse.

?Yeah...?

At the end of these events lies the way to make a great many wishes

and dreams come true. The means will be there, all it requires is the will

to make it happen. Do you have the courage to continue this?

?Of course I do!?

Then you are already halfway there. Stay on the path and it will be

yours.

?Does this mean I have to go through more of what I got in the

mound??

If you let the energy flow through you instead of standing in it?s

way, it won?t be so unpleasant next time. You can?t hold back the sea

with your hands you know!

?So just keep ?chasing the wind? huh? Sounds easy enough.?

Nothing so valuable was ever won so easily. You may have to give

something up to get what you desire.

?So how do I know when I?m there, at the end that is??

You?ll know... For now I?ve said more than I should have, but I

think that?s because I like you too much. I must leave you now, but

don?t worry, I?ll be around. Farewell!

?Uh, good-bye Anazali. Thanks.? I think...

He wasn?t sure how, but he felt her presence dissolve away.

Deciding that he wasn?t ready to go back to the others yet, he started

down the hill and walked towards Brodgar. The early afternoon sun felt

good on his face, and the breeze was calm and cool.

It didn?t take him long to reach the circle of Brodgar. The ancient

observatory was over a football field in diameter; large 16 foot tall slabs

of sandstone spaced every 6 degrees of arc about the circumference. Or

at least there were. Only 36 stones remained of the original 60 after

almost five thousand years of existence, and many of those were mere

stumps.

West and his men were breaking down the sensory gear and the

satellite transceivers as he stepped over the threshold of the circle. He

didn?t know West very well, had only seen him the previous night when

the men had come in from drinking at the pub in Kirkwall. West on the

other hand seemed to know him.

? ?Allo gov?, ? he greeted with a brief wave of his hand.

Ranma bowed slightly out of habit, and then returned the wave.

? What brings you ?ere? ?

Ranma shrugged? looking around. ?

West gestured to the stones. ? A real piece of ?istory ?ere gov?. The

Picts or their ancestors put this place up about 2900 BCE. No machines,

no engineering skills, just brute strength. ?

? BCE? ?

? Before Christian Epoch, ? West explained. ? It?s a little pretentious

I?ll grant you, but it seems a lot of scientists are atheists these days. Tack

the ?E? on the end of BC and that?s all that it means. ?

? Oh. ?

Ranma looked around again at the vast grassy field. The stones stood

in mute testimony to an ancient people?s ambition. He hadn?t thought

about it much before, but now he found that he was quite impressed with

their accomplishments. There was nothing in Japan as magnificent as this

with a similar antiquity.

? What did they do here? ? He asked West.

West looked up from stowing a length of cable into a padded shipping

box.

? In the days when all the stones were in place, you could track the

moon?s orbit around the earth. They ?ad a nice lunar calendar with this

circle. They could predict the phases of the moon, when the next lunar

eclipse would come, things like that. It?s a little odd though, the ancient

Celtic cultures usually tracked solar phenomenon. Almost all of the

surviving stone circles in the UK are solar related you know. ?

Ranma didn?t, but he nodded anyway.

? We ?ad quite an Event today, ? West went on. ? Biggest I?ve

seen yet. Missed the Nerima Event, but Ferg says this one was bigger.

Must ?ave been bloody impressive at Maes ?owe from all the juice

Brodgar sent it. ?

? You could say that, ? Ranma replied evenly.

A man in stained blue coveralls reported that all of the other gear was

stowed for the trip home. West pointed to the trucks and the Range

Rovers.

? If you need a ride back to camp, you?d best be going now. ?

? No thanks, I think I?ll stay here for now. ?

? I?ll see you in camp then?ave a nice day. ?

West and the others piled into the vehicles and rode away. Ranma

walked to the center of the circle and sat down. The sky was starting to

turn as gloomy as it had been in the morning.

With my luck it?ll rain, he thought blackly.

He needed to think. It was becoming clear to him as he twiddled his

pigtail that finding a cure for his unbalanced ki wasn?t going to come

soon. He only hoped this could all be resolved by the end of summer.

Akane needed to return to college.

Then there was the matter of Anazali and exactly who (or what) she

was. She knew a lot more about whatever he and Akane had been caught

up in, and she was keeping it to herself. Maybe she planned to fill him in

as they went along, but as for any motives behind it he had not a clue.

He trusted her so far. But that was mostly because she had been truthful

with him about not finding a cure here.

Lastly there was her tempting little suggestion that he could end

his Jusenkyo curse by continuing this crazy hunt for ?events? to its

conclusion.

Wouldn?t that be nice...I?d never become a girl again.

Over the last three years he had grown accustomed to his peculiar

transformation. He had even used it to his advantage numerous times.

It still didn?t change the fact that he hated it. Every time he felt his

body shrink and his limbs grow weaker, every time the flood of whatever

it was that coursed through a woman?s bloodstream addled his brain, it

was in every way to him a curse. It didn?t matter that people found his

female form beautiful, he?d trade them in a heartbeat to be normal.

And that is what made Anazali?s proposition so damned tempting.

Ferguson said they had improved a little since before, suggesting that he

and Akane could be restored before the end. What was he going to do if

they were cured before the last event?

He lay back on the grass and stared up into the sky, thinking. After

awhile he realized that he was getting nowhere and that he was hungry.

He decided that maybe he should share this with someone else. Hiro

already knew a little about Anazali, and being here was as much for

Akane as it was for him. He just wondered how she was going to take

news of this ?other woman?.

As he got to his feet and started back for the camp it began to rain.

His transformation into a girl came within minutes. Fortunately she was

wearing her Chinese clothes, which were a simple adjustment of sash and

draw strings to fit her diminutive form. Her camouflage jacket was now

a small cloak for her head and shoulders.

Yep... she thought grimly. It?d be nice to be rid of this

curse.

Chapter Five

?What do you mean?it was him??? Ivan Tarchenko asked gravely.

Fyodor glowered down at him. ?It was the same man who has been

ghosting us for months, Comrade Tarchenko.?

?You?re sure??

?I was but meters away from him.?

?Then why didn?t you kill him??

Fyodor thought back to that night and his fierce desire to do just that.

?I tried... He had some power over me, I couldn?t even lift my rifle

against him. His stare was so intense that I had to look away. I think I

blacked out from shock.? He pointed to the large bandage that swathed

his leg above the knee and covered the through and through stray bullet

wound.

?Nonsense Fyodor. I know you to have sustained far worse in

Afghanistan and continued to perform. Unless your service record isn?t

entirely accurate, that is.?

Fyodor glowered some more at the thinly veiled slight. But he kept

his silence.

?What do you want me to do?? He asked slowly.

Tarchenko thought a moment.

?In spite of your clumsy handling of this entire affair, I still have

some use for you. Report to the Station Chief in Paris for an update

on Professor McFogg?s group. You will take over the surveillance from

Antonov. Your objective will be to keep track of the two Wayfinders.

Follow them wherever they go. When I give the word, you will abduct

them and take them to the nearest Embassy. Hold them there until I

can join you.?

Fyodor?s surprise was evident.

?Embassy, Comrade??

Tarchenko understood the nature of Fyodor?s surprise. ?It seems that

Yeltsin?s bid for reelection is gaining strength. Our backers are nervous

that he may succeed in July. To this end they are willing to cash in

favors with the apparatchiks to gain the prize we seek.?

?And this ?Heart of the World? will put them back in power? Why

not kill Yeltsin instead??

?It?s not so simple,? Tarchenko scoffed. ?The coup against him

failed because the people wouldn?t support it. Even the Army sided

against us. If he wins in July another coup would meet the same fate.

Even if we killed him, the people would never support Zhukerov and

without the Army we could never stay in power. There would be anarchy

on such a scale that the United Nations would be compelled to step in to

prevent a nuclear conflagration. -Or at least that would be their pretext

for invading.?

?But your ?Heart of the World? would change that.? Fyodor didn?t

seem convinced.

?I?ve seen what it can do, Fyodor. I?ve seen photographs of the

devastation in Siberia from 1908. There is power there that is

unimaginable. We wouldn?t need the Army to rule Russia. I daresay

we wouldn?t need them to rule the world.?

It was Fyodor?s turn to scoff. ?I think this is a dangerous pipe

dream.?

?Believe what you will Fyodor Gennadiyvich,? Tarchenko said

sternly. ?Do as you are told and you will be rewarded handsomely.?

Fyodor?s eyes fell to the open file on Ranma and Akane. He looked

closely at them and grumbled?I still do not see how these two children

could be so important. Even if they are the ?Wayfinders?. But I will do

as you instruct.?

?We need those Wayfinders, Fyodor. Old Casimir is still tinkering

with his model, but without the American supercomputers it will take

more time than we have to make it work. I don?t need to stress that we

need them alive and well? Or that discretion would be wise with our

national reputation on the line??

Fyodor shook his head slowly and suppressed a growl.

Tarchenko left the file on the desk with a large sum of American

Dollars. As he walked to the door he looked back over his shoulder

to Fyodor.

?I?m off to St. Petersburg. My absence is becoming a bit conspicuous

I?m afraid. Do contact me when you get to Paris.?

?What of the three who escaped??

?In spite of your bungling, without any hard evidence their story will

be hard to believe. But in any event I?ve ordered our European agents to

be on the lookout for them at all Japanese diplomatic houses. Accidents

do happen, you know.?

Kelebros sailed on through the darkened waters of the Marmaran Sea.

The Black Sea was behind them and soon they would reach the Aegean.

By Nabiki?s estimate of their speed and a chart Aerandir laid out for her,

it would only be a few days. She would have preferred it be sooner, as

her father and sister were certainly worried sick by now.

Aerandir and Kuno were on the foredeck discussing the stars and

other things nautical. Nabiki had to laugh about that. Kuno was as much

a sailor as she was a samurai. That their handsome benefactor actually

enjoyed the boorish kendoist?s company was even more amusing. (Or

disturbing depending on how you looked at it.)

It was getting late though, and she realized that she was very tired.

Ukyo lay dozing in a deck chair on the afterdeck. A blue woolen blanket

lay over her, thoughtfully provided by Aerandir. She was feeling weak

and sick again. Aerandir declared that they would put into a port closer

than their destination if her condition worsened, but in the meantime a

little rest would be best for her.

She went forward, steadying herself against the rocking of the ship.

Her sea legs were a little slow in coming to her, but at least she didn?t

get seasick. That might have been part of Ukyo?s present condition in

and of itself. The Russians? drugs couldn?t still be affecting her, could

they?

Aerandir inclined his head towards her in recognition.

?What might I do for you, Nabiki?? It had taken only one prompting

to get him to drop her surname from his addresses to her, something

she had never been able to do with Kuno. Which is why she continued

to call him ?Kuno-baby?.

?I was feeling a little tired and I thought I would offer you a good-

night and a thank you for all you?ve done for us.?

?My pleasure Nabiki. My cabin is yours for the duration.?

Nabiki blushed a little at that. Was that a proposition?

?I shall keep the Blue Thunder company tonight,? Aerandir continued.

If he was aware of Nabiki?s reaction he made no sign. ?It?s rare that you

find someone with such a keen interest in the stars. I have a hammock

that strings nicely from the main mast to the stanchions. You are welcome

to join us if you like, I?m sure I have another lying about somewhere.?

?Uh thanks, but I think I?ll go below.?

?As you wish. Good night.?

?Fare thee well Nabiki Tendo, may your sleep be untroubled and

your dreams pleasant,? Kuno added.

?Thanks Kuno-baby!? Tatewaki Kuno could be such a darling when

he wasn?t paying attention to himself.

She turned and started aft. She gently woke Ukyo, and offered to

help her below. Ukyo would have none of that, insisting that she was

fine. They both stepped softly down the ladder and through the galley to

Aerandir?s cabin. There wasn?t much below decks other than the galley

and storeroom, the cabin, and a bathroom forward. Nabiki wondered if

he lived full time on the ship and decided that somehow he did.

There was only one bed in Aerandir?s cabin, but that wasn?t going to

be a problem. Especially so if Kuno and Aerandir were going to take turns

in a hammock topside. She walked over to the sandalwood wardrobe and

found some night clothes for her and Ukyo to wear to bed. They were

a little skimpy, but then she had no problems with that either.

She handed the more conservative of the two outfits to Ukyo, a sheer

black satin chemise that was quite daring of hemline but otherwise

harmless. Ukyo had prettier legs than she did in her opinion anyway. For

herself she chose a red chemise with a plunging neckline and a hemline

that came a close second to Ukyo?s.

Ukyo stripped out of her frock and slipped into the chemise.

?Very nice,? she observed. ?I might have to look into one of these

when we get home.?

?Like I said before, I just hope he doesn?t wear this stuff,? Nabiki

replied. ?The way he maneuvered us down below so he could have Kuno

all to himself makes me wonder.?

Ukyo frowned. ?You don?t possibly think he?s...?

?Anything?s possible,? Nabiki countered. ?We don?t know all that

much about him really.?

?These clothes he has lying around suggest a taste for ladies, Nabiki.?

Nabiki had a counter for that argument, but decided not to go there.

Instead:

?Well I?ll tell you this: you and I weren?t the only ones he bathed

last night.?

Ukyo remembered her startling revelation of the morning quickly

enough. With Aerandir the only person on board Kelebros, he was the

only one who could have stripped them out of their wet clothes, bathed

them, and tucked them all into his bed.

?Oh?? She asked.

?Yep. You know how you smelled of lilacs, and I of jasmine? I

remember Kuno-baby smelling like roses!?

Ukyo grinned. ?Well at least he got the right flower for him. But

that still doesn?t mean anything. And how did you know what Kuno

smelled like anyway??

Nabiki became suddenly defensive. ?Well I happened to be the one

lying next to him. It could have been you, you know.?

?Sounds like Aerandir got it right again,? Ukyo chuckled.

Nabiki arched an eyebrow. ?Just what are you implying, Ukyo??

?I?ll leave that for you to decide.?

?Oh please!? Nabiki sniffed. ?We?re just friends. That?s all we are,

so don?t go getting any other ideas.?

?Yeah, but you?re one of the only friends he has. Even if you?re

always swindling him, you never bleed him for more than he can afford.?

?That?s just good business practice,? Nabiki sniffed.

?I think it?s more.?

?Will you stop!? Nabiki cried. She swatted Ukyo with a pillow. Not

hard mind you, just enough to bowl her over. Unfortunately Ukyo

wasn?t her usual vibrant self, so the blow came rather hard.

?Omigosh! I?m sorry Ukyo!? Nabiki cried. ?I didn?t mean to hit

you so hard!?

Ukyo looked up from under the pillow. ?No damage done. I?m okay.?

?I?m so sorry,? Nabiki continued.

?I said I?m all right. Just a little weak in the knees I guess. I

haven?t got my sea legs yet.?

?Me neither.?

?Well hurry up and change, I could use a little sleep tonight.?

Nabiki sighed and took off her clothes. She set them on the chair

next to Ukyo?s frock and slipped into her chemise. Ukyo made room

for her in the bed and pulled the covers over them when Nabiki got

settled.

?It would be just like Kuno to try something in the middle of the

night,? Nabiki said as Ukyo switched off the lights.

?Well try not to make too much noise together and I might sleep

through it.?

Nabiki sizzled next to her.

?Will you stop that!?

?Good night Nabiki,? Ukyo giggled.

?I?m not sorry. I should have hit you harder.?

?Good night Nabiki.?

?Sigh... Good night Ukyo.?

The rain had slowed to a drizzle when Ranma-chan returned to the

camp. The propane lights glowed cheerfully beneath the pavilion as

shadows of men played across the red and white plastic. Akane waited

for her with dry clothes and a steaming mug of cocoa.

?When it started raining I knew you wouldn?t be gone for long,? she

said to Ranma-chan.

?Thanks Akane,? she replied and accepted the mug.

Professor McFogg, Ferguson, Katy and Clay were gathered around

the table in a discussion. A few techs and research assistants scuttled to

and fro with hardcopy and thick data files. A photographer from the

National Geographic Society took a few snapshots of them.

Ranma-chan took a seat on a folding chair that Hiro presented for her.

?Don?t you want to change?? Akane asked her, holding up the shirt

and trousers she had taken from his bag.

?Not yet. Wait ?til I?m a guy again.?

?I was just trying to make you comfortable,? Akane groused.

?Thanks Akane.? Her words seemed to take away Akane?s edge.

McFogg and Ferguson seemed to be discussing something important.

Both liked to talk with their hands, and at the moment their limbs were

flailing all over the table as they spoke. Clay injected a few comments

here and there but wasn?t taking any sides.

?What?s going on with them?? Ranma-chan asked.

Hiro looked up from his cup of cocoa and gave them a dismissive

wave of his hand.

?This is usual for them after an event. They?re arguing about the

findings. Until the computer analysis comes back they?ll keep at it. I?m

surprised Ferguson and Miss Price aren?t at each others? throats yet.?

?Why is that?? Akane asked.

?Ferguson doesn?t believe the computer?s predictions are worth

much anymore. Katy believes the opposite. That and I think they?ve

got the hots for each other.?

He looked at Ranma-chan and Akane sitting next to each other.

?Come to think of it, it explains a lot,? he continued.

? I don?t think we have a lot of time to discuss this, ? Clay said

during a brief pause in the discussion. ? I have a strong feeling the

time is now to move on. ?

? At least wait for the analysis, ? Katy protested.

? Pfaagh! ? Ferguson snorted.

Katy narrowed her eyes evilly at him.

? I think what Mister Clay is saying is that the next event will come

sooner than we are expecting, ? McFogg soothed.

? Quite correct Professor, ? Clay confirmed.

? But Spain? Even without the analysis, Spain is way off from the

established trend. ? Katy said defiantly.

? Just proves my point about the model?s failure, dear. ? Ferguson

chuckled.

? You keep out of this! ? Katy snapped. She turned back to Clay.

? And just where did you get this wild notion from? ?

Clay was unperturbed. ? Ranma spoke a word immediately following

the event. That word was ?Alhambra?. Alhambra is the name of a

Moorish castle in Granada, Spain. ?

? What he said was gibberish. He could have been cursing in

Japanese for all we know, ? Katy countered.

? Hiro stated that the only thing Ranma said in his native tongue

was that he was going to be sick. ?

McFogg had left the table by this point and was walking over to

Ranma-chan. It was still a little unnerving to see him as a buxom young

woman, but he supposed things could only get stranger from here and

that he?d best get used to it. Ranma-chan smiled coquettishly for him.

? Hey Professor, ? Ranma-chan said in greeting.

? Hello Ranma, we?re just a bit wet are we? ?

? Got caught in the rain. ?

McFogg nodded and sat down across from the three Japanese.

? I?m sorry we couldn?t find a solution for your problem here, ? he

began.

? That?s okay, ? Ranma-chan replied.

? I do have a proposition for you. Ferguson tells me you did

experience some improvement today. Perhaps another go in another

place might help even more. ?

? I thought about that myself. ?

? Splendid! To be honest with you though I must say this: my

group may well need you far more than you need us. I don?t understand

how or why, but I feel that you and your fianc饠are tied to these events

now... If we are ever to find the answers we seek, we need your

continued support. ?

Akane looked a little surprised.

? What does that mean exactly? ?

The Professor gave her a fatherly smile. ? You can sense these

events as they happen. Somehow you are connected with them. Again

I can?t say how or why, but you are. You can help us find the others. ?

? How many others? ? Ranma-chan asked.

? I don?t know. I can tell you that we are close to the end. I have

been chasing these events directly for the last seven years, and there

have been more events in these last twelve months than in all of the

other six years combined. They seem to be coming faster and faster

with each one. ?

? So you need us to come with you? ? Ranma-chan asked hope-

fully.

Akane looked at Ranma-chan in further surprise.

? That?s it exactly! ? The Professor cried. ? I assure you that you

will be well taken care of. ?

? You?ve done so much for us already, I?m not worried about it. ?

? So you will accompany us to Spain? ?

? If it?s the next stop, sure! ?

? Splendid! You have my deepest gratitude! ?

McFogg shook Ranma-chan?s hand vigorously and excused himself

as Clay and Ferguson called him back to the table.

?Hey all right Saotome, looks like you?ll be with us for a little

longer,? Hiro said happily. ?I was going to miss you two.?

Akane looked at Ranma-chan in wonderment.

What the heck?s come over him? I thought he hated all this... He?s

got a lot of explaining to do tonight.

Ranma-chan sat back in her chair and smiled.

End of Part Five

Author?s Notes:

1) As explained in the narrative, Maes Howe and the other megalithic

sites on Orkney Island are primarily aligned for lunar events and for

rituals involving the Winter Solstice. Most of the megalithic sites in

the UK are tied to solar events such as the vernal and autumnal

equinoxes and the summer solstice, which is a major event in the

Celtic religions. Palladium Books?Beyond The Supernatural? was

my primary reference for the descriptions of the sites, so if there are

any discrepancies between the real sites and my portrayal of them,

you know where I erred.

2) Kuno?s stand at the Dniester River includes several quotations from

Wm. Shakespeare?s ?Macbeth?. His ?I have supp?d full of horrors?

line is Macbeth?s, as is the infamous ?Lay on MacDuff...Hold,

Enough!? line. The other quotation is MacDuff?s ?Make all our

trumpets speak...? Kuno?s wistful ?This poet lies...? remark to Ukyo

and Nabiki comes from the Sonnets.

3) I hope I wasn?t too far over anyone?s head with the nautical

dialogue aboard the (former) Red Banner Black Sea Fleet frigate.

4) My phonetic attempts at spelling Russian with the Roman alphabet

aren?t based on any conventions that I?m aware of. For those of you

who ?govorye pa-russke?, please bear with me!

Free The Nukes!


	6. Chapter 6

-Chasing the Wind-

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man

Fission Park group of scientists come to Nerima to study ?magnetic

disturbances?. Ranma and Akane get caught in the middle of an

?event?, which skews their ki?s in opposite respects to each other.

Unless they remain close to each other, they lose all fighting focus,

and in sleep they experience terrible nightmares.

Hiro Ohata, Ranma?s friend from the Second Korean War,

works for the scientists and arranges for them to come to England.

The hope is that Professor McFogg and his research team can

reverse the effects of their skewed ki. During the trip to London,

Ranma meets a woman named Anazali, who seems to be following

them.

Ukyo, Nabiki, and Tatewaki Kuno are kidnapped by agents

working for a Russian research team that is also chasing these

?events?. They are taken to a dacha outside of Odessa where

Ukyo is tortured. Kuno breaks free and rescues the two women.

The three are pursued by a vicious man named Fyodor.

Ranma and Akane are caught up in the next event, which takes

place at the megalithic site of Maes Howe on Orkney Island, Scotland.

Aware that Anazali has been watching them, Ranma calls her out to

talk. Anazali tells him that he may find not only a cure for his skewed

ki, but also a cure for his Jusenkyo curse.

Professor McFogg asks Ranma and Akane to stay with the

research group as they chase after the events. The Maes Howe Event

has slightly improved their unbalanced ki?s, leaving hope for further

improvement. Ranma agrees to stay, much to Akane?s surprise.

Kuno, Ukyo, and Nabiki are nearly caught and killed by Fyodor

and his men in the Ukraine. An enigmatic stranger delivers them

from their fate. They find themselves aboard a sailboat headed for

the Aegean Sea under the care of a man calling himself Aerandir.

Part Six:

A History Lesson.

Chapter One

?Kiiiiiiiiyaaaaahhh!!!?

Two young voices cried out as one. At their very crescendo a

stout oaken log split in two. The cry melted into the satisfying crunch

of wood.

? Not bad, ? Heironymous Durango remarked.

Ranma and Akane remained balanced on one foot. Their other

feet hung in midair; Ranma?s at the level of his eyes, Akane?s just

over the top of her head. The log halves fell to the ground.

?You two work pretty well together,? Hiro noted as he

thoughtfully ran his brush through the barrel of his .45 caliber

pistol. D-Day was cleaning the receiver of a drum fed Thompson

that looked like it belonged in a gangster movie. The table was

littered with rifles, submachine guns, and pistols in various states

of assembly. Hiro and the others were doing a little maintenance on

the group?s small arms. It was a little reminder that some of the

places they would travel to were less than hospitable.

That was true enough, Ranma supposed, thinking about

Hiro?s remark. He had only known her for a few days when they

had faced off against Kuno on their way to school. Although they

hadn?t planned it that way, they both leaped into the air to deliver

a flying kick to the kendoist?s face. A few of their friends remarked

that they looked like they had been fighting as a team their whole

lives the way they leaped and struck in unison.

? Breakin? a log like that?s gotta take serious power, man. ?

D-Day observed to Durango.

Ranma jerked a thumb towards Akane.

? Akane?s got brute strength in spades. ?

Akane?s face twisted in pain as if she?d been struck. Instantly

pulling herself together, her dagger elbow slammed into his solar

plexus. Ranma doubled over more for theatrical effect, as he?d

seen this one coming. That didn?t mean it didn?t hurt, however.

?Would you like another example of my ?brute strength??? She

asked hotly. Durango and D-Day didn?t speak Japanese, but it was

clear from Akane?s rapid-fire speech that she said something less

than sweet to her fianc饮

?No thanks,? Ranma gasped. She?d hit him harder than he thought

she would. It was a good thing he was prepared for the blow.

?Good,? she continued. ?What?s next??

He recovered and gave her a puzzled look.

She answered his unspoken question.

?You wanted to practice together so you could stay in form. If

you can?t keep up with me, just say so and we?ll take a break.?

?Hah!? Ranma snorted. ?The day I can?t keep up with you is the

day I quit martial arts!?

?Then follow me on a little run. If you can keep up that is!? She

teased. She started off down the grassy meadow that was once, and

occasionally still, an airfield.

Ranma ran after her. ?Don?t push yourself too hard!? He yelled.

?I?d hate to have to carry ya back to the house!?

Durango watched them go. He sprayed a little solvent into the

extractor mechanism of an H&K MP-5PK submachine gun and shook

his head.

? Those two are full of vim and vigor this morning. ?

D-Day nodded in agreement. ? Yeah, they remind me of me and

my first ex. ?

Ranma caught up with Akane and jogged by her side. He was

tempted to tear off ahead just to prove who the strongest runner

really was, but knowing Akane?s stubborn streak, she would actually

push herself to the point of collapse. Carrying her back to the house

didn?t sound like a fun way to spend the rest of the morning.

?I?ve been meaning to talk to you,? Akane said to him as he came

alongside.

?Oh yeah??

?I didn?t get a chance before we left Maes Howe.?

?What?s this about??

?Your change of heart.?

Ranma gave her a questioning look.

?My what??

?Ever since we left Japan you?ve been carrying on about how we?re

just here to find a cure. The Professor?s research meant nothing to you.

Now it seems like you want to follow him to the ends of the earth. I

just want to know why.?

Ranma thought about his answer.

Without warning he stopped in his tracks.

Akane continued on for several more paces before screeching to

a halt.

She jogged in place as she turned around to face him. When it

looked like he wasn?t going to be doing any more running, she stopped.

?What was that for?? She asked.

?This is important to me, Akane.?

She stepped up to him. ?Could you tell me why??

?I don?t know how to explain this. I don?t even know where I

should begin.?

?The beginning?s usually a good place.? She stuck her tongue out

at him.

He looked away. ?This ain?t funny.?

She put her tongue back in her mouth. ?Okay, it?s not funny... So

what is it??

He looked up to the sky for a moment.

?A cure.?

She made an exasperated face.

?I know that. So what?s the big deal??

?It?s not our cure. It?s my cure...?

It took a few moments for Akane to understand what he was

talking about. When she did, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped

in amazement.

?Y-You mean a cure for, I mean, the cure? For your Jusenkyo

curse??

Ranma nodded his head solemnly.

?How??

?It?s hard to explain. I just know it.? Should I tell her?

Her brow furrowed in thought. ?You mean like how you knew

about when the event was coming??

?Something like that.? I gotta tell her. She?s gonna find out

sooner or later, and it?s better if she hears it from me.

?I don?t begin to understand this, but if you?re sure this will

rid you of your curse, then I?m happy for you Ranma!?

Ranma tucked a hand behind his neck and tried to grin. He really

had no idea how he was going to broach the subject of Anazali. ?It?s

something I?ve hoped would happen for a long time.?

Akane cocked her head at him then.

?What?s wrong?? She asked.

She knows me too well...

?There?s something else...? He began.

?Go on...? She prompted when it looked like he was going to stall.

He settled for the direct approach.

?Someone has been following us since we left Japan. I?ve talked

to her a few times. I?m pretty sure she doesn?t mean us any harm,

but --?

?--Excuse me?? Akane interrupted. ?She doesn?t mean us any

harm? Who is this ?she?, Ranma??

Ranma could already see the green monster looming over Akane?s

shoulder. He chose his words carefully. They could very well be his

last.

?She says her name is Anazali. I don?t know who she really is, but

she seems to know an awful lot about what?s going on with these

?events?.?

?And where did you first meet this Anazali??

Ranma couldn?t believe Akane was overreacting like this, then

again...

?I met her in the upstairs lounge on the flight from New York to

London. She asked me where I was going, what I?d be doing in

London, you know; that sort of conversation that people get into

when they?re trapped on airplanes for hours on end.?

?Okay, so when did you decide she was following us??

?I ran into her again the night the Professor took us to dinner.

She told me we wouldn?t find our cure at Maes Howe, and that was

before I even knew we?d be going there.?

?She knew about Maes Howe??

?Didn?t I just say that??

She shot him a dagger-eyed look.

?There?s more to this of course,? she said in a taut voice.

He tried to give her the disarming grin that always worked on

Shampoo and Ukyo when they were cross with him. It failed to

have the desired effect. He should have known better.

?Go on,? she prompted.

?Well... You see, she can sort of make herself invisible. And she

can talk inside your head. And she...? His voice trailed off when it

looked like she wasn?t believing a word he said.

?You believe me don?t you?? He asked.

?I shouldn?t,? she began. ?But it would explain a few things.?

Akane?s brow furrowed in thought. She had the oddest little crinkle

of her nose when in such reflection, and Ranma always thought it

was a little cute. Nevertheless, she was probably thinking of some

bombshell to drop on him.

?Is she pretty??

Alarm klaxons began sounding inside his head.

?A little,? he hedged. There was always the chance Akane might

meet Anazali.

Akane wasn?t buying it. ?What does ?a little? mean??

?Not as pretty as you,? he offered.

She rolled her eyes.

?Hmmmphh! I?ll bet.?

?Hey, I mean it!? He yelled at her.

?Do you?? She asked. He hated it when she maneuvered him into

things like this.

?Yeah,? he said. ?I can?t believe you?re makin? a big deal about

this. I try to be open and honest with you and instead I get the third

degree.?

?I?m not giving you the third degree,? she insisted.

?Feels like it.?

She arched an eyebrow for him. ?Trust me, you?ll know when I?m

giving you the third degree.?

?Look, if I can, I?ll try and get her to show herself to you. You

can ask her the questions for a change.?

?She isn?t very free with information??

?Like I said, she seems to know an awful lot about what?s going

on, but she won?t tell me much. She just leads me on. It?s starting

to bug me.?

?So what is going on??

Ranma shrugged. ?Beats me.?

He started jogging back towards the mansion. Akane started after

him. The sky was clear and the air warming with the sun?s track

across the sky. In the distance they heard Hiro and Durango laughing

at some joke.

When Ranma and Akane finished their workout, they bathed and

changed into casual clothes. He met her in her room and they went

downstairs to find the Professor. It was agreed that they tell him of

Ranma?s encounter with Anazali. What they hadn?t agreed upon was

when they would do it. Akane was in favor of telling him now, but

Ranma pressed her to remain quiet about it for the moment.

One of the maids pointed them towards the Study. Just outside the

threshold of the doors, they heard several familiar voices raised in

argument. They waited outside and listened.

? I can?t believe you still insist on going to Spain. The analysis

of the Maes Howe Event clearly points to Malaysia as the site of the

next event. ? It was Katy Price who said this.

Her old nemesis Ferguson was next. ? I can?t believe you still

insist on clinging to that bloody dinosaur of a computer model. Give it

up dear, the beast is dead! ?

Katy?s rebuttal came hot on his words. ? I can forgive the

Professor?s eccentricities, (at this they heard McFogg snort something

under his breath) but I thought you were a rational scientist Ferg.

There isn?t a shred of evidence supporting a location in Spain. Not

one! How can you possibly base your predictions on the phantasms

of two nineteen-year-olds? ?

Now it was Ranma and Akane?s turn to snort something under

their breath.

? I think this has gone on far enough Miss Price. If you feel you

are unable to continue supporting this project, then it would probably

be for the best if you left the group. ? It was McFogg who said this

with a heavy heart.

Ferguson jumped in before Katy could reply. ? Just give us one

more chance Katy dear. I?m working on a revised model that I?m

sure will put us on a more solid intellectual footing. I just need one

more event to know if I?m heading in the right direction. ?

Katy said something Ranma and Akane couldn?t hear. Then she

left the Study through a side door.

? You didn?t have to put her on the spot like that, ? Ferguson

said crossly.

? If she causes any more friction it will seriously undermine this

project, ? McFogg replied.

? Well that?s another thing Professor. I didn?t want to say anything

in front of her, but my blind faith in this wild Spanish guess has just

received a little shake. My doctoral dissertation advisor phoned me

this morning. ?

McFogg grunted something inaudible. Ferguson continued.

? He?s threatening to withdraw as my advisor. ?

? He?s threatened that for the last eighteen months. I don?t see

what you?re worried about. ?

? I think he?s finally getting serious. It?s been four months since

I gave him anything to look at. And frankly what I gave him was pure

shit. ?

? What are you getting at Mister Ferguson? ?

? What I?m getting at Professor, (and his tone was pure ice) is

that I?m about two weeks away from flushing my doctoral dissertation

right down the loo. What I?m getting at is that all my work for the

past three years has turned to shit in just three weeks because our

model is worthless. Even if we make the event in Spain, assuming

that the ravings of Ranma and Akane are correct, how the hell am

I going to publish anything that derives how we arrived at that solution?

Katy?s right; I can?t just add some footnote saying that my source

of information was a psychic vision from two young Japanese! ?

? I expect not, ? McFogg replied coolly.

? So what the bloody hell am I supposed to do? ?

? Do you want to see this through to the end? ?

? Yes. ?

? Then put away your cares over your dissertation. I know what

you?re capable of Mister Ferguson, that is why you are on this team.

All I ask is that you keep a very open mind about what we see and

do in the next few weeks. ?

? And if my advisor drops me? ?

? To hell with him. Be honest with me Ferguson, I know you?re

working night and day on this new model of yours, and mostly without

a computer. You know the mechanics of these events backwards and

forwards. I also know you are about a stone?s throw away from

abandoning your dissertation material and starting over with what

you?ve learned, you just don?t want the stigma of being dropped

hanging over you. If being dropped is what it will take to make you

start fresh, than it is a good thing in my opinion. ?

? Well I have been thinking about starting over, ? Ferguson

admitted. ? But it?s not easy throwing away so much of my life?s

work. ?

? You are yet still young Mister Ferguson. There is plenty of your

life still ahead of you. ?

? I believe in Ranma and Akane, Professor. I really do. I can?t

explain it; this thing that has happened to them, this connection they

have to these events, but I believe. It?s the wanting to explain it all

that has my teeth set on edge... I mean this is really fantastic! I?m

excited about it, all the possibilities those two represent. ?

? I know you are Mister Ferguson. Harness that enthusiasm and

find out how they fit into this puzzle. I?m a history professor and

sometimes archeologist. I don?t have the background to delve into

the nuts and bolts of these events. That is why you are on this team. ?

? Hello you two, up to a little eavesdropping are we? ? Clay

asked behind Ranma and Akane.

Both spun around with burning faces.

? It?s not polite you know, ? he added.

They both looked quite ashamed. Clay started laughing.

? So what?s going on in there? ?

They both face faulted.

? Oh come now, you might as well tell me. ?

Akane went first.

? I think they just finished arguing about going to Spain. Miss

Price isn?t taking the decision to go very well. ?

?That?s puttin? it mildly,? Ranma whispered.

?Do you want to tell this?? Akane hissed in reply.

?No.?

?Then shut up.?

Akane smiled sweetly for Clay to beg pardon for Ranma?s

interruption and went on. ? And Mister Ferguson is having trouble

with his ?dissertation?. ? The word was unfamiliar to her. ? I?m not

sure what it means, ? she added.

Clay nodded in understanding. ? Ferguson is trying to earn his

Ph.D. His dissertation is his research project that will be evaluated by

a dissertation board, and during which he will be required to defend

his arguments and conclusions against them. If the board is satisfied

with his work, he receives his degree. If not, well he can revise his

work or start over. The hard part is getting your dissertation ready

for the board. It takes a great deal of research and gathering of

supportive evidence. ?

Akane seemed to understand. Ranma?s eyes were starting to glaze

over. She nudged him in the side to bring him back to the world.

? We also seemed to be the reason for the arguing, ? Akane

added weakly, feeling a little ashamed.

Clay gave her a sympathetic look. ? None of this is your fault.

If anything, we should be grateful for coming to us when you did.

Without you and Ranma, we would be lost by now. ?

This seemed to cheer Akane a bit.

? Now let?s go inside and act like we?ve heard nothing, shall we? ?

Clay said, and opened the door after a brief knock.

McFogg greeted them at the door. He placed his pipe to his lips

and puffed away. Several large books were stacked upon a reading

desk. Ferguson scribbled away at a large sketchboard. Ranma caught

a glimpse of his old nemesis upon the paper, calculus. Whatever

problem Ferguson was working on, it seemed he needed eight or

nine large sheets of paper to do it.

? Hello Mister Clay, ? McFogg greeted. His face brightened as

he saw the couple behind Clay. ? And hello to Ranma and Akane

as well! ?

? Hiya Professor, ? Ranma replied. Akane waved delicately

with her fingers.

? I?ve received word from Legal, ? Clay said as Ranma and

Akane wandered over to look at the paintings and old maps on the

walls.

? Oh? ? The Professor asked.

? We have permission to work within the Alhambra, but with

the tourist season reaching its peak we will have to keep the circus

act to a minimum. I?m afraid this will have to be a low profile

investigation. ?

McFogg frowned. ? I was afraid of that. Ferguson, do you think

you can manage with only a few sensors? ?

Ferguson looked up from his equations and pursed his lips in

thought.

? If we get lucky and put them in the right place I could manage

with four or so. Plus some hand-held gear of course. I guess it

depends on how close Ranma and Akane can get us to the nexus. ?

At this Ranma and Akane turned around.

Ferguson looked at them. ? What do you think? Will another

?hunch? come along? ? He asked them. Clay and McFogg leveled

their gaze upon them.

Even Akane looked at Ranma, who now flushed uncomfortably.

?Why?s everyone lookin? at me?? He hissed to Akane.

?Because they think you can help them,? she whispered back.

?Maybe you should tell them right now about whatsherface.?

?I don?t think so,? he replied softly. ?Not yet.?

? Well I?m sure when the time comes they will set us in the right

direction, ? Clay said, and Ranma breathed a silent sigh of relief.

McFogg seemed to agree, and Ferguson went back to his equations.

? We shall have to make our travel arrangements accordingly, ?

the Professor said to Clay. He jotted down a few notes on a steno pad.

? You, Myself, Ferguson, Katy if she wishes to remain with us, Hiro,

and of course Ranma and Akane. Anyone else? ?

? I could use Ames maybe to lend a hand with the equipment, ?

Ferguson said without looking up from his work.

? It shall be done, ? McFogg replied. He puffed away on his

favorite meerschaum pipe and wrote down another name.

Akane thumped Ranma on the back of the head. He had returned

his attention to a map of the world dated from 1798.

?What was that for?? He asked, rubbing his head.

?You should tell them,? she pressed.

?I don?t think that?s such a good idea,? he replied.

?Why not? You think they won?t find out sooner or later??

?Hopefully not,? Ranma grumbled.

?Stop being such a jerk and tell them,? Akane countered. ?They?ve

gone to a lot of trouble for us. We owe it to them.?

Ranma clenched his fists in agitation but knew she was right. It

was just that he didn?t like admitting that Akane was right about

anything. Especially when it meant he was wrong.

Akane landed the coup de grace whilst he stewed.

?Do it for me then,? she said quietly.

?Urrrrrggghh,? he replied between clenched teeth. She had to go

there, didn?t she?

?Please?? She asked, twisting the knife.

?Grrrrrrr...? He growled, trying to resist. His pigtail stood on end.

?Pretty please?? She smiled so winsomely for him that he swore

he heard birds singing and flowers appear around her face. The sunlight

streaming through the windows of the study made her skin glow and

her big dewy eyes glitter.

AARRRRGGGH!!!! Who woulda thought she?d turn being cute

into a weapon?!

?Okay,? he said in a voice so quiet she almost didn?t hear him.

?You win.?

Love makes you do stupid things... He observed darkly.

Her smile of approval almost made his submission of pride

worthwhile.

He cleared his throat to get their attention. McFogg and Clay

looked at him. Ferguson set down his sketch pad of ?th.

? Uh, about what happened at Maes Howe, ? Ranma began.

They waited patiently for him to go on.

? You see, I kinda had a little help there. ?

? Oh? ? McFogg asked. ? Do go on, Ranma my boy. ?

Ferguson and Clay traded looks. There was something about the

Professor?s tone that told them he wasn?t completely surprised by

this revelation.

? This is a little hard to explain, ? he waffled. Akane hissed at

him to go on.

? Perhaps if you took the tap shoes off and got to the point, old

bean, ? Ferguson offered.

Ranma scratched the back of his head nervously.

? Uh, okay. Well to make a long story short there?s this woman

who?s been following me since we flew from Tokyo and we ran into

her at dinner the other night at that inn and she told me about Maes

Howe before you did and then she followed us there and told me in

my mind when the event was gonna happen and when it was all over

I talked to her in my head again and she was invisible the whole time. ?

He panted for a few breaths.

?How in the world did you get all of that out in one sentence??

Akane whispered in amazement.

Ranma made an aside to her. ?Saotome School of Fast Talking.

I learned it from my Old Man. How else do you think he got me out

of the house for ten years??

?I seem to recall a stipulation on that deal...?

He closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her.

? No beating about the bush there, ? Ferguson said evenly.

? I expect not, ? Clay added.

McFogg?s eyes twinkled as he puffed on his meerschaum.

? A woman you say? ? He asked.

? Uh, yeah. She said her name was Anazali. ?

? You said she could talk to you in your mind? Like telepathy? ?

Clay asked.

? If that?s what you call it, yeah. ?

? And she?s been following you ever since Tokyo, ? Ferguson

said, throwing his own lot into the mix.

? Yup. ?

Clay turned to the Professor. ? What do you make of it? ?

McFogg puffed once more, blowing out a great blue ring of smoke.

? I believe what Mister Saotome is saying if that is what you are asking

me. ?

? So what does this bloody well mean? ? Ferguson asked, setting

his sketch pad of calculations on the desk with a slap. ? Are Ranma

and Akane connected to this, or are they just being led around by this

mystery woman? ?

? A little of both I think, ? Clay said off-handedly.

The Professor took his pipe from his mouth and held it

thoughtfully in his hand.

? I?m glad you told us about this Anazali, ? he said to Ranma.

? I shall have to think about what this means in the grand scheme

of things. In the meanwhile we should continue with our preparations

to go to Granada. I want to be standing in the Alhambra by noon

tomorrow. I?m sure you can agree that time is of the essence. ?

He lifted his pipe to his lips again and puffed once more.

? That will be all gentlemen, ? he said before Clay or Ferguson

could broach any further questions for Ranma. ? And if you would

please refrain from pursuing this with Ranma or Akane for the time

being, I would be most grateful. I?m sure our two guests would agree

with me. ?

Ferguson and Clay took the hint. They offered pleasantries and

left the study to make the necessary arrangements. That left Ranma

and Akane with McFogg.

? Thanks Professor, ? Ranma said to him.

? Think nothing of it, lad. I?m sure the decision to tell us did not

come easy. ?

Ranma looked at Akane, who winked at him.

? I had a little help, ? he offered.

McFogg took a seat in his favorite chair and gestured for them to

do the same. They sat across from him in the love seat. The touch of

a remote on an end table started the sound system, and Rachmaninoff?s

?Symphonic Dances? began to play.

? Tell me about this woman if you would please, ? he asked them.

? Her name is Anazali, ? Ranma said. ? She looks Caucasian,

but there?s something funny about her skin. ?

? Is it silvery, or seem to sparkle in the light? ?

? Yeah, kinda, ? Ranma replied. Akane was all ears at this point.

She wanted to know just how pretty this woman was since Ranma

was reluctant to talk about it with her.

? Her skin has kinda this pearl-like glow to it. Or oil on water.

That sort of thing. ?

? I understand. However I?m curious as to why she approached

you. ?

That question definitely had Akane?s attention. Ranma felt her

tense by his side.

? Uh, I?ve asked her that question myself. All she?d say was that

I was somehow caught up in this. Even she didn?t know why. She

hasn?t told me much of anything, really. Sorry. ?

? That?s quite all right. I expected as much. ?

? Expected? ? Akane asked. ? You mean you knew this was

going to happen? ?

McFogg nodded solemnly. ? You see, when I was younger I

myself was visited by a rather strange person. He had silvery skin and

could speak to me telepathically. He knew of my father?s work,

which I have since taken up as my own. It was because of him that

I did so. ?

? When was this? ? Ranma asked.

? In 1947. The war was over. I was out of the Army and was

working on my Bachelor?s degree in history studying the Sikh peoples

in India with my uncle. This was at a time when the British Empire

was about to lose their Raj in India. I was in Bombay shortly before

Independence when this enigmatic fellow met me at a country club.

He claimed to have known my father Diomedes McFogg, who died

during the Blitz. He spoke of my father?s work at the turn of the

century and how he could get me copies of some notebooks lost in

the ensuing years. ?

? And then what? ? Akane asked.

? To make a long boring story shorter, he rekindled my interest

in my father?s work. What Diomedes was studying were the very

same events we are studying now. His partner was a Russian named

Andr頃asimir. Andr頤ied before the war, but he had a son named

Grigory. I wanted to join my friend Grigory, who had also picked

up his father?s work, but the end of World War II only led to the

Cold War. As he was Russian our opportunities were limited. I

never saw my strange silver skinned friend again after that time, but

I have always believed that he or one like him would return one day.

And now I see that it has come to pass. ?

? So what does this mean? ? Ranma asked. He was a little

overwhelmed, but was trying not to let it show.

? It means that we are on the right track with our research, ?

McFogg said with a just a slight smile. ? I think your friend Anazali

might be here to guide us through you and Akane. ?

He let them think about that for a moment.

? What you are part of just might be the greatest thing to happen

on the Earth in a very long time, ? he said to them. ? And I think

you two are the cornerstone to events as they unfold. It might seem

strange, but I envy you. ?

Chapter Two

Ukyo had no idea what time it was when she got up. It was still

dark outside; she could tell as much by looking out of the portholes.

Nabiki was purring in her sleep next to her.

There was a bathrobe on a chair next to the bed, and she draped

it over her shoulders. It wasn?t cold, and she figured no one would

be awake for her to worry about wandering around in the little black

chemise Nabiki had found for her. The wooden decks were polished

so smoothly that she walked barefoot on them. No worries about

slivers to warrant wearing slippers.

She opened the door aft to the galley. It was dark and quiet. She

felt her way to the ladder topside and crept up from below decks.

The sky was clear and bright with starlight on the afterdeck. The

sea was black and the waves were shallow rolling hills of water.

Kelebros rode them smoothly, the prow barely pitching against the

waves. Spindrift broke across the gunwales, lending the night air a

cool salty feeling on her skin.

She spied Kuno asleep in a hammock. She went over to him. He

slept peacefully, cradling his sword to his chest.

Still looking out for us, even in his sleep, she mused. For

such a jerk, he sure took care of us.

Aerandir was on the prow. He seemed to be talking to someone.

The trouble was, Ukyo couldn?t see anyone else but Aerandir. She

watched him for a little while. He was definitely talking to someone

other than himself, but again she couldn?t see who it was. The

foredeck was empty save for Aerandir.

She heard a bell chime from somewhere below decks.

Ding-Ding, Ding.

?Three Bells, Ukyo. How do you fare??

It was Aerandir. He held a strange device in his hand.

?I feel okay,? she replied, trying to put what she had seen behind

her.

?Very well. Three Bells and all?s well!?

?What?s that supposed to mean??

Aerandir chuckled. ?That is what time it is. Three Bells. Three

Bells since the watch was relieved. Five more until the next relief.

Each Bell is thirty minutes apart. That means four-hour watches.?

Ukyo looked around. ?Who relieves you? I thought you lived

alone on this ship.?

Aerandir gestured to the hammock where Kuno slept.

?The Blue Thunder has graciously offered to relieve me of the

deck at the end of this watch.?

?Is that safe??

Aerandir chuckled again. ?As far as sailors go he?s not the saltiest.

But he is a fair hand at the tiller, and he knows more about seafaring

than most first hitch swabs. Besides, this ship you could say has a

mind of its own. She fears not the rocks and shoals, nor the squalls

and blows.?

Ukyo was only half listening to his words. She could swear she

saw movement out of the corner of her eyes. If she didn?t know better,

she would almost believe the lines slacked or strained by themselves.

Aerandir noticed her distraction.

?Is something the matter??

Ukyo started.

?Uh, no! I?m still half asleep I guess.?

?Are you feeling ill again?? He put a steadying hand on her shoulder.

She looked at his handsome face and his sea colored eyes that were

now as dark as the waters but flashed with the starlight upon the

whitecaps.

She blushed.

?No I?m feeling all right. It comes and goes, but I?m feeling fine.

Really.?

?I am glad.? He turned and pointed to the distance across the

starboard beam. A few lights twinkled against the dark coastline

miles away. ?We shall arrive this morning.?

Ukyo strained her eyes. ?I don?t see much of anything I?m afraid.?

Didn?t Nabiki say this trip would take three days? I guess she can?t

read a map.

?That cluster of lights is the city of Gelibolu. You might know it

better as Gallipoli. We should pass through the Straight of Cannakale

and into the Aegean by dawn. From there we shall bear South by East

at the Isle of Limnos to the Dodecanese Islands. Kᬩmnos in particular.

If all goes well, we should be sending over lines Six Bells into the

morning watch.?

She nodded her head and pretended to understand what he was

talking about. Aerandir?s hand left her shoulder and began to brush

lightly at her hair.

?Will you be staying to watch the sunrise? Or will you be returning

below??

She looked at him and smiled.

?I guess I could stay for the sunrise. I?ve never seen one from the

ocean.?

Aerandir nodded approvingly. ?The only thing more beautiful is to

watch the sunset. Did you know that if you see a green flash of light

as the sun sets over the water it will bring you good luck in your

travels??

Ukyo shrugged.

?I don?t know much about the ocean, Aerandir. Sorry.?

?I understand,? he sighed. ?The romance of the sea has been lost

to the convenience of the airplane and the automobile. Even my

brother has no taste for the mariner?s life.?

This was a surprising revelation.

?You have a brother??

He sighted on a star with the device in his hand; an astrolabe

exquisitely wrought in brass. From the look of its baroque form

and beautifully engraved markings Ukyo guessed it was an antique.

Very antique.

?Yes. Sometimes he is known as Palandir. My brother is the one

who pulled you from the Dniester. He asked me to keep you safe and

to take you to our uncle. That is why we are going to Kᬩmnos.?

?Why do we have to go there?? Ukyo asked. ?Our home is Japan.?

Aerandir sighted on another star. ?You are not safe in Japan. The

butchers from whom you fled have eyes in many places in this world,

but my uncle?s home is not one of them.?

?Then you know about the Russians??

?My brother informed me when he delivered you to my ship.?

?Did he tell you why they wanted us? Because if he did, I?d sure

like to know.?

?I know little, but what I do know I will share with you.?

He scribbled his celestial observations into a logbook that he kept

in his pocket before speaking.

?There is something that occurs at one place on the earth every 88

years. The location changes but one thing remains the same: the

enormous energy well of the planet itself comes close to the surface.

Close enough that it is possible to harness that energy to do wondrous

things. Or terrible things depending on the disposition of the one who

wields that power. These Russians that took you from your home think

you can help them discover where and when this event will take place.?

Ukyo frowned.

?Or at least could tell them where to find the ones who could,? she

thought aloud. She thought of Ranma and Akane and shuddered. Do

they even know the danger they?re in?

She looked away to the dark waters and shuddered again.

Aerandir placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. ?What troubles

you Ukyo??

?The ones the Russians want are my friends... I love both of them,

but one in particular is very dear to my heart. The Russians will be after

them as well.?

?That may be true,? Aerandir agreed. ?They hope to gain this power

for themselves, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their aim. You

and Nabiki and the Blue Thunder are in grave danger so long as you

dwell outside the aegis of my kin.?

?How long do we have to stay hidden? Is there anything we can do

to fight back? Or to warn my friends??

?Once we reach my uncle?s villa on Kᬩmnos, he will know what

to do. Until then, please enjoy my hospitality and take comfort in the

fact that we will endeavor to protect you and your friends.?

Ukyo knew there was much that she didn?t understand about who

Aerandir and his family were, but the feelings of sincerity and concern

she received from him belied any real misgivings she had. Trust did

not come easy to her, but she felt like she could trust Aerandir. Never

mind the fact that he talked to invisible phantoms when he thought

nobody was looking.

Sunrise came and she watched it with Aerandir and Kuno, who

had risen to relieve Aerandir. Kuno seemed quite pleased with himself

to be at the conn of such a fine ship. Ukyo decided that Aerandir

wouldn?t allow the kendoist to put them in any danger, and she was

feeling worn out again.

Aerandir noted this as well and sent her below with the notice

that he would serve her and Nabiki breakfast in a few hours.

Nabiki was still asleep. Whatever pleasant dreams she had when

Ukyo awoke were replaced by a deep slumber. She didn?t even stir

as Ukyo slipped under the sheets next to her.

?Up all bunks!? Aerandir cried in a pleasant (if a little too loud)

tone of voice. ?Turn to, show a leg!?

Nabiki stirred first and peered over Ukyo to the aft door. Aerandir

was standing in the threshold with a tray. She was still a little drowsy,

and settled her chin on Ukyo?s side to look at him.

?What?s this?? She asked.

?Breakfast,? he replied. ?A little something to sustain you before

we make landfall.?

?Landfall??

?We are close to our destination. In another two hours we should

be tying up.?

This made no sense to Nabiki, who had looked at the charts and

knew there was no way they could cover 400 miles in one night.

?Are we talking about the same place we talked about last night??

?Of course.?

Ukyo woke up beneath her.

?Good morning Nabiki,? she said a little tersely.

?Just a second Ukyo,? Nabiki replied. She returned her attention to

Aerandir. ?Just how is that possible? We would have to do, what, thirty-

some knots to travel that distance in one night??

Aerandir smiled graciously for her. ?I know a shortcut.?

Nabiki blinked twice in confusion. The implications were a little

staggering to her sensibilities. Aerandir offered up the tray for them,

which at least had the effect of changing the current uncomfortable

topic of discussion.

?Breakfast is served,? he announced. He set the tray down on the

end table next to the bed.

?Your old clothes are dry, but they are a little tattered and frayed.

If you like you are welcome to wear whatever suits you from the

wardrobes. Enjoy your meal.?

He left them to return topside.

Nabiki lifted her head from Ukyo?s side and sat up in the bed.

?This doesn?t make any sense,? she said.

Ukyo yawned. ?Not at all,? she agreed.

?We should be another two days away.?

?I saw the map, and I?m inclined to agree with you. But I also

believe Aerandir is quite serious when he says we?ll make landfall

soon.?

Nabiki arched an eyebrow at her.

?Any explanations??

Ukyo blew at her bangs, which had fallen over her eyes without

the benefit of a ribbon to hold them back.

?I dunno, how rational do you feel like being today??

?What?s that supposed to mean??

Ukyo reached for the violet ribbon she had worn last night, and

secured her lustrous mane of dark brown hair. Of course a great

bow crowned the top of her head when she was finished. She

pulled at it until it was set exactly as she desired.

?I think this ship is haunted,? she said in all seriousness.

?What?? Nabiki had seen some strange things before, but she was

not prepared to accept this one at face value. ?Would you mind

explaining that one while you?re at it??

Ukyo gave her a serious look to match her tone of voice.

?I woke up early this morning and talked with Aerandir. Before

we actually started talking though, I noticed him up at the front of

the ship talking to someone else. But there was no one there. I also

noticed that the ship?s rigging was moving by itself. When I saw it

I just thought it was my tired eyes playing tricks on me. Now I?m

convinced that what I saw was real.?

?So you?re saying Aerandir is a ghost??

?Of course not. Just that he talks to them... I think they?re his

crew.?

?Maybe that fever of yours did more harm than we thought.?

Ukyo shrugged. ?You wanted my opinion and I gave it to you. If

you can come up with a better explanation for why we?ve crossed

400 miles of ocean in twelve hours, I?d love to hear it.?

Nabiki threw off the sheets and got out of bed.

?I?m not prepared to accept that just yet.?

?This isn?t easy for me either,? Ukyo said defensively.

?Let?s discuss this some other time.?

?Okay.?

Nabiki looked through the sandalwood wardrobe for something

to wear.

?You know Nabiki, if you really want to know, you could probably

just ask him. I really think he would tell you if he saw how important

it was to you.?

?Why don?t you ask him then??

Ukyo looked out the porthole to the deep blue sea.

?I guess it?s just not that important to me.?

Chapter Three

?Land ho!? Aerandir cried. He held his spyglass to his eye for

another look, took a few bearings, and then strode casually to the

pilothouse. The ship heeled against the wind as he shifted the rudder.

Ukyo and Nabiki joined him at the wheel. Kuno was readying

the mooring lines from a line locker. The sight of him doing a

presumably menial task was a bit of a shock to Nabiki?s system.

What followed was even worse.

?Carry on,? Aerandir said evenly.

The spar for the mainsail shifted to keep the sails full of wind.

The jib and staysail unfurled between the prow and mainmast and

filled with air in loud snaps. The mizzenmast creaked as additional

sail billowed open from the reef stays. Winches turned to take the

appropriate strain on the sheets and halyards.

Aerandir nodded as if hearing someone?s voice.

?Very well,? he said with a touch of pride. He inspected the fill

or ?belly? of the sails, which gleamed silver against the midmorning

sunlight, and nodded again approvingly.

He looked over his shoulder and grinned at the two young ladies.

?As I said dear Ukyo, my ship has a mind of it?s own.?

Nabiki stood a little aghast, but quite silent. Ukyo smiled smugly,

but kept silent as well.

Aerandir motioned to Kuno, who had a bundle of blue silk in his

arms.

?If you would please Blue Thunder, raise our colors. My uncle

isn?t exactly expecting us, and I wouldn?t want any unpleasantness

to mar such a lovely morn.?

Kuno nodded and raised Aerandir?s personal ensign to the top

of the mainmast. It was a white dolphin splashing playfully across

a field of deep sea blue. A cluster of seven silver stars lay in the

upper left corner.

The island of Kᬩmnos lay before them across the gently rolling

waves. As they approached they could see the island was mostly

rocky cliffs. There was one small stretch of sandy beach along the

small lagoon Kelebros made for, but little elsewhere. The island

was lush with palms and sycamores and wildflowers that grew

from great masses of green vines that snaked up the rocky cliff

sides.

A wooden quay jutted from the beach and into the water. Once

Kelebros cleared the stony breakwater and entered the calm waters

of the small lagoon, the ship slowed as Aerandir brought her in

against the wind. There was a small crowd of people on the pier

waiting for them.

Kuno cast a monkeyfist to the pier where a stout man dressed

in blue denim received it and held it fast. Kuno tied the eye of the

mooring line through the rope and passed it over. Aerandir tended

to the after mooring line. When the fore and aft lines were doubled

and secure they threw across the spring lines, took up slack as

needed, and waited for the men on the pier to pass the brow across.

When the brow was in place and secure, Aerandir strode across.

A man on the pier raised a bos?n?s whistle to his lips and piped him

ashore. Several of the people on the pier greeted him in a language

Nabiki and Ukyo had heard only once: the night Aerandir sang to

them.

Aerandir walked straightaway towards an older gentleman wearing

a swan grey business suit, grey gloves, and wide brimmed hat. The

man?s hair and neatly groomed beard were silver, and his skin had

an odd complexion to it. It seemed silvery when an errant ray of

sunshine played upon his face.

? Greetings Uncle! ? Aerandir said warmly.

The man smiled in return. ? Hello Aerandir, my Sea Wanderer.

I must confess I was surprised to see your standard flying in the winds

near my island. What brings you here? It has been a long time since

your last visit. ?

? Trafalgar as I recall, ? Aerandir said softly. It had been a

long time.

? I see that you no longer sail alone, ? Aerandir?s uncle observed.

He gestured to the ship where Kuno, Nabiki, and Ukyo stood

watching.

? They are the reason for my coming, uncle. Palandir sent them

with me to entrust to your care. ?

The man looked back to the three on the ship. ? And how is your

brother these days? ?

? He is well. We do not see each other much. Our moods are

often at odds with each other. ?

? Very true. He takes more after your father whilst you are more

like my sister and her love of the sea. ? The man motioned for the

three to come ashore. ? I trust that you are aware of their

circumstances? ?

Aerandir nodded. ? Palandir has informed me. ?

? You shall have to enlighten me then. ?

? Of course, Uncle. ?

? I did not expect something like this to announce itself. ?

Aerandir affected a look of concern. ? What do you intend to do

with them? ?

The man chuckled and turned away. ? Guests in my care are

always treated well, my nephew. You know this. Once I have

spoken to them I will know what is best. ?

Ukyo was the first off the ship, followed by Nabiki and then Kuno,

who gave Kelebros one final wistful look before stepping onto the

brow. The three took their place at Aerandir?s side. Nabiki looked

coolly at Aerandir?s uncle, unsure what to make of him.

Aerandir handled the introductions.

?This is my uncle Sarophan,? he said to them. Sarophan nodded

cordially for them.

Aerandir gestured to Kuno. ?This is the swordsman Tatewaki

Kuno, known as the Blue Thunder, and he is the protector of these

winsome ladies.?

Kuno made a short and respectful bow for Sarophan, who returned

it with appropriate formality.

Aerandir then pointed to Nabiki. ?Uncle, this is Nabiki Tendo,

and she is as formidable a woman as she is beautiful.?

Nabiki blushed a little at this.

?I am honored to have your company,? Sarophan told her warmly.

Like Aerandir, when he spoke to them, it did not seem that he spoke

to them in Japanese. Nevertheless it was Japanese that reached their

ears.

?And this young flower is Ukyo Kuonji,? Aerandir said, placing a

hand on her shoulder.

Ukyo wore a short purple dress with the violet ribbon bow in her

hair. She reminded him of a poem by Walter Savage Landor.

Sarophan?s eyes gleamed in appreciation for Aerandir?s wit.

?If it pleases you, I shall call you Ianthe.?

Ukyo was mildly puzzled at this. Sarophan answered her unvoiced

question with a gracious smile.

?My nephew has described you well: a lovely purple flower, Ianthe.?

?I?m afraid our flower is a little wilted, Uncle; she requires the

attentions of a physician.?

?How fortunate!? Sarophan replied. ?Among other things I happen

to be a physician.? He motioned them towards a pair of white Sterling

convertibles that waited for them at the end of the pier. ?We should

go to the villa now and see to your needs. I am certain you have

many questions for me, and I shall endeavor to answer them to

your satisfaction.?

The Sterlings took them over a low tree lined rise and into a large

valley surrounded by steep rocky slopes. Olive trees grew in neat

rows along a narrow cobblestone road that led to the villa. The villa

itself was a large open affair done in a classic Late Imperial Roman

style with whitewashed plaster and terra-cotta. Lush pomegranate

and fig trees surrounded the house and these in turn were garlanded

with lovingly tended beds of mums, hyacinth, poppies, and iris.

Once inside the villa Old World charm mingled with the modern

conveniences. The interior was air-conditioned, making it a cool

haven from the Aegean summer heat. They passed through the

foyer and its tasteful Greek and Roman appointments to a sunny

drawing room complete with home computer and German made

component stereo system. The willowy strains of Ravel?s Concerto

in G Major, second movement, played for the enjoyment of three

songbirds who perched upon a post of cunningly wrought iron vines.

To Nabiki?s amazement the three birds kept time with the music and

sang the parts for the flutes and soulful clarinet flawlessly.

Sarophan offered them comfortable chairs. Nabiki continued to

watch the songbirds and listened in wonder to their performance.

She nudged Ukyo and tilted her head at them for her.

Sarophan noted Nabiki?s fascination and chuckled.

?They love the adagio assai to this concerto, but you should hear

their Paganini. A virtuoso performance.?

Nabiki wasn?t sure if he was joking or not, and as the birds

continued their accompaniment she decided that he wasn?t.

Sarophan asked that they tell their story to him over lunch. They

did so, with Nabiki glossing over the part about Ukyo?s torture. She

was glad Kuno didn?t try to add anything on that account. He asked

them a few questions about Ranma and Akane, and the research

project they had been caught up in, and he asked about McFogg and

his group. They didn?t have many answers on the last subject.

The interview lasted a little over an hour. When it was over,

several servants posted themselves at the threshold of the drawing

room and awaited instructions.

?You are all welcome in my home for as long as you like,?

Sarophan said to them. ?But I would ask that you stay here until

such time as the danger to your well being is passed.?

?When will that be?? Nabiki asked.

?This ?event? that the Russians and English are pursuing will soon

arrive. When it does, there will no longer be any danger to you.?

?And how long is that?? Nabiki asked, direct as usual.

?Aerandir was right to call you a formidable woman!? He said

with an approving laugh. ?The event will take place at exactly noon

on June 23rd.?

Nabiki nodded her head in acceptance. She didn?t like it, but at

least he had been forthright with her.

?I understand you wish to contact your families. This is perfectly

acceptable to me, although I caution you to keep your messages brief.

Assure your families that you are well. Make no mention of where

you are, or where you believe your friends Ranma and Akane to be.

There is a great likelihood that your families? homes have wiretaps

on the phone lines placed in the very event that you attempt to

contact them.?

He motioned to one of the servants, a handsome young man of

swarthy complexion and inviting brown eyes. The man stepped

forward and smiled for them.

?Yiannis will show you to your rooms. Arrangements will be made

for providing you with a suitable wardrobe for your stay. If you need

something, he can usually be found in the garden.? Sarophan stood

and brushed at his beard. ?If you wish to contact your families now,

he will show you to the study. Again I caution you about what you

say over the telephone.?

With this he bid them good day and retired through a sliding glass

door to a flower garden and fountain. Aerandir followed after his

uncle, apparently wishing to speak further with him. Yiannis and the

other servants stood patiently for Ukyo, Nabiki, and Kuno to join

them.

?I guess we should make that phone call,? Nabiki said to Yiannis.

?As you wish,? Yiannis replied. Again there was the strange feeling

that he wasn?t speaking Japanese even as the words reached their

ears. ?Follow me please.?

They followed along as he led them out of the drawing room and

back into the foyer. From there he led them through a hall and into

a large circular room sunken several feet lower than the rest of the

house. The furnishings and decor here had more Greek influence,

although there were organic forms and colors present which seemed

to dispute such origins. Above the hearth was a brilliant tapestry of

a white swan alighting on the water against a blue sky and silvery

clouds. An unknown calligraphic script, graceful as any Arabic but

more geometric in form, cordoned the tapestry in gold.

Yiannis produced the telephone from a rosewood desk.

?If you will tell me the country you wish to call and the local

number please.?

Nabiki looked to Kuno and Ukyo, who motioned for her to go

ahead.

She looked back to Yiannis and told him the phone number for

the Tendo Dojo.

Yiannis wrote the number down and began punching buttons on

the phone. After several moments he began speaking rapid fire Greek

to someone Nabiki supposed was an operator. He waited a bit longer

before passing the phone to her.

Nabiki took the receiver from him and put it to her ear. She

heard Kasumi answer the phone and her heart leapt to hear her

sister?s beautiful voice.

?Tendo Dojo, Kasumi Tendo speaking.?

?Kasumi!? Nabiki cried. Everything she planned on saying funneled

right of her head in that instant.

?Nabiki?!? Kasumi replied in shock. ?Nabiki, is that you??

Nabiki came to her senses. ?It?s me sis.?

Before she could say anything else Kasumi immediately broke in

with a tearful ?Where are you? Father and I have been worried sick!?

?I can?t explain right now. I just want to let you know that I?m all

right.?

Kasumi wasn?t listening. ?Where are you? When are you coming

home? Has something happened to you??

?Please Kasumi, I?m all right. I can?t say where I am right now,

and I can?t say when exactly I?m coming home, but it won?t be more

than a few weeks.?

?What??

?Kuno and Ukyo are with me, and they?re okay too. I really can?t

explain this over the phone. Tell Daddy not to worry about me.?

Nabiki hated this. She wanted to tell her sister everything, but there

wasn?t the time and Kasumi doubtless wouldn?t understand.

?I have to go,? Nabiki said when Yiannis gestured to the clock

above the desk. ?I?ll call back when I can.?

?Wait!? Kasumi cried. But Nabiki had already hung up. She looked

away from the phone and bit back a sob. Kasumi was the last person

in the world she wanted to see upset.

?I am sorry Miss, but it is for your own protection, and for the

protection of your family.? Yiannis said to her. He then offered the

phone to Ukyo and Kuno. The swordsman deferred to Ukyo, who

decided that she had no one she needed to speak to. At this Kuno

directed Yiannis to the Kuno Estate.

Sasuke, faithful ninja to the family, answered the phone. Kuno

made no attempt to explain his absence, but instead began issuing

orders to Sasuke to look after the mansion and to look after Kodachi.

Sasuke grimly accepted his master?s orders (especially the last part)

and Kuno hung up.

Kuno handed the phone back to Yiannis.

?Thank you my good man,? he said to him. ?Now if you would

show me to my quarters.?

?I am rather impressed with Ianthe. I see great potential within

her,? Sarophan said as they strolled along the garden.

Aerandir nodded. ?And of her condition??

?Anemia,? Sarophan replied. ?A side effect of the drugs used on

her. Along with short term memory loss, nausea, photosensitivity,

and immune system suppression. From the look of her I?d say

Tarchenko?s interrogator had no intentions of keeping her alive when

they finished.?

?And the treatment??

?Rest. Iron supplements with her meals. Time will heal. She is

strong, that one. All three of them are.?

Aerandir smiled. ?All of that with a look, eh uncle??

?I?m surprised you didn?t see it yourself.?

?Medicine has never been my forte.?

?It?s not as if you haven?t had the time to study, nephew.?

?Your medicine has little to do with books, uncle.?

Sarophan snorted.

?Just like your mother. Eyes, heart, and mind on the sea,? he said

gruffly.

?I share her dream.?

Sarophan gave him a hard look.

?If you share her dream, then why is it that you do not share mine??

Aerandir?s eyes flashed. ?I?m sorry uncle, but your dream and my

mother?s are not the same.?

?My dream will make your mother?s dream possible,? Sarophan said

in a tone that barely concealed his ire.

Aerandir stood fast. ?Your dream is impossible.?

?And how long do you plan to wander the seas until these people

have the ability?? Sarophan asked bitterly.

?As long as necessary, uncle.?

Sarophan clenched his fists tight. His eyes flashed beneath the

shade of his wide brimmed hat, and his words came out drawn

and taut like concertina wire. ?They are poised on the brink of

ruin. If they fall now, there will be no starting over. This world is

too depleted for them to start from scratch, and there aren?t

enough of us left to help them. The time to act is now, before it

is too late!?

Aerandir?s face softened. ?We should not speak of this further,

uncle. We shall never be reconciled if we should continue.?

Aerandir?s words cooled Sarophan somewhat. ?You are right, Sil

Amarn, my nephew. I do not pretend to know your mind. You will

not follow me, and yet you do not flock to Nimatar?s camp. For that

at least I am grateful.?

Aerandir was a little surprised to hear his uncle refer to him by

his birth name.

?Though we do not agree, I will not set myself against you uncle.?

Much later, Nabiki found Tatewaki Kuno standing in contemplation

of a graceful marble statue in one of the spacious villa?s halls. The

statue was a little under six feet tall. It was of a woman with long

gamine legs and wasp waist and small well-formed breasts. The

white marble robes she wore fell loosely about her shoulders and

bosom and seemed to cover her long legs only as an afterthought.

Her face was fine featured with high cheekbones and slender nose

that turned up slightly. She had a generous mouth that seemed

well used to the smile she offered the two young people. The stone

of her skin was glazed as such that it seemed to glow with the same

silvery complexion of Sarophan.

?She?s beautiful,? Nabiki remarked.

?Verily,? Kuno replied.

Nabiki was silent. She wanted to talk, but the words wouldn?t

come.

Kuno sensed this.

?Is something amiss Nabiki Tendo?? He asked her.

Nabiki threw him a crooked smile. ?No Kuno-baby. Nothing is

?amiss?. I was just thinking.?

?Something vexes thee Nabiki Tendo. I am too well accustomed to

thy turns of mood to believe otherwise.?

She arched an eyebrow at him. ?Oh really?? She said with a touch

of acid in her voice.

?Verily,? he replied coolly. ?Wouldst thou deign to speak with me

of it, or shall I fetch the fair Ukyo for your confidence in my stead??

Nabiki was unused to being put on the spot by Kuno. Usually it

went the other way around.

I must be losing my touch, she thought idly.

?Oh Kuno-baby, what could you possibly know about how I feel??

She asked in a condescending tone that made her feel more

comfortable with him.

?You forget that I have known you for ten and four years Nabiki

Tendo,? he said to her, still studying the venous patterns of blue and

grey running through the white of the statue as he spoke.

?And what exactly does that mean??

Kuno chuckled in a rich voice. ?That I know the affairs of your

heart better than you believe.?

?Hah!? Nabiki scoffed with surprising bitterness. ?And what about

all those times you said I was heartless?!?

?A feeble riposte ?gainst slights and injustices that I in truth

brought upon myself,? he said calmly in the face of her outburst. ?You

never once believed that I could speak such things ?gainst you in

sincerity, didst thou?? He turned to look her in the eyes. There was

a tremor in those languid walnut colored orbs that suddenly seized his

chest in an iron grip. She looked away from him sharply, unable to show

her face to him.

Zounds! What hath I wrought? Mayhap the lady shalt weep

at this? Such as that I could not bear upon my spirit! Shamed and

cowardly should I be known for such villainy!

Kuno dropped penitently to his knees before her.

?I beseech thee Nabiki Tendo! Forgive such words as were driven

from my lips without thought! I would bear you no malice.?

Nabiki turned to find him head bowed respectfully to the

immaculately polished marble floor with a hand raised in supplication

to her. She wiped at her eyes, muttered something about the dust in

the place, and took his hand in hers. They both trembled ever so

slightly at the touch.

She recovered her cool. ?Oh Kuno-baby, stand up for Pete?s sake.

You look ridiculous down there. And you?re being far too melodramatic,

even for you!?

She tugged at his arm and Tatewaki Kuno gracefully stood.

?As my lady wishes,? he said to her. His face was a stern mask of

practiced stoicism. He gestured down the hall towards his room. ?If I

may, I would go now and study my art. By your leave??

Nabiki?s eyes flashed in surprise. 'As my lady wishes?'

?You don?t need my permission Kuno-baby.? She managed to

say it with all the arrogance she could muster.

?As you wish, m?lady.? He bowed formally for her and strutted

down the hall, leaving her more than a little confused about him.

?What the heck was that all about?? Ukyo asked behind her.

She turned to find Ukyo and Aerandir walking together.

?Oh just Kuno lost in his little samurai dramas again,? Nabiki

replied. She wondered just how much the two had seen and heard,

and quailed inwardly at the thought.

?Typical for him I guess,? Ukyo said off-handedly. She let it drop,

but there was mirth in her eyes.

?I see you have discovered Lady Tatharan,? Aerandir remarked,

changing the subject and making Nabiki grateful to him. He gestured

to the statue of the woman.

?Lady Tatharan?? Nabiki and Ukyo asked in unison.

?My mother,? Aerandir replied matter-of-factly. ?My Uncle?s

sister, which is why her shrine is in his house. I come to pay my

respects to her.?

?Forgive me, I didn?t know.? Nabiki said softly.

?There is nothing to forgive, Nabiki.? Aerandir assured.

?She must have been very beautiful,? Ukyo managed. The reason

for their coming here was as much a surprise for her as it was for

Nabiki.

?She was the fairest lady of my people,? Aerandir said quietly.

?Long before Helen did she walk upon the world, and doubtless her

face launched more ships. The Phoenician and Babylonian legends

of the goddess Astarte are based upon her.?

Nabiki and Ukyo looked at each other in puzzlement.

?What are you saying Aerandir?? Ukyo asked.

?You have noticed that my uncle and I are in some respects,

unusual??

?Say it isn?t so!? Nabiki said with a laugh.

Aerandir smiled for her. ?As you would find out soon enough

during your stay in this house, I feel I should explain certain things

about my family. The first is that my uncle and I are far older than

we appear.?

?Just how old is that?? Nabiki asked, a little skeptical, but

willing to hear him out in light of recent events.

?Come and walk with me,? he said to them. ?My mother can wait

a little longer.? He called to Kuno, who was in his room not far away.

?Blue Thunder! I would be delighted if you would come and join us

for awhile.?

Kuno came out of his room with his sword in hand. He placed it

back into its scabbard and carried it in his hand. Nabiki twinged a bit

uncomfortably as he took his place at her side.

Aerandir led them out into the garden. Night had fallen and the

trees swayed calmly with the gentle sea breeze. The moon was high

in the sky, bathing the garden in soft white light. Aerandir seemed to

gather his thoughts about him, drifting back far into ages he had never

known.

?A very long time ago the world shrugged off the winter slumber

of an ice age. As the creatures of the world awoke to the dawn of a

new age of sunshine and warmth there came a tribe of humans.

These people were very clever and capable and soon flourished

over their land. They learned the secrets of metalworking, of

agriculture, of language and writing, and of the physical sciences.

?They lived on a large island in the middle of the sea, and so they

did not know that there were other tribes of humans in the world, nor

did they know that these people still wallowed in darkness and hunger

and fear. They prospered and built several great cities and centers of

commerce and learning.

?After a thousand years of progress, the wisest among the people

learned of the currents of energy that pass through the earth and

charted them. They studied them for many years, and soon

discovered how to harness that energy. Using that energy they

did many wondrous things and soon learned that their world was

much larger than they had previously imagined.?

He paused to look at them. His eyes focused on Ukyo.

?The Event I spoke of to you Ukyo, that occurs every 88 years

somewhere on this planet, it happened on this island. The people

were expecting it. They were prepared for it. When it came, they

bound it to them in a great prism of stone with their powerful wills.

The wonders they had done before paled before the miracles they

could now perform. The wisest and strongest among them could

reshape the world as they saw fit, and they turned their island into

a paradise.?

He looked away to the distant stars in the sky. Ukyo heard him

whisper something in that beautiful alien language of his. After a

moment?s respite he continued his tale.

?A fire was lit beneath these introspective people. They burned

with a hunger to explore their world. To reshape it until all of the

Earth was a paradise. The widest reaching of them envisioned days when

not even the world itself would be enough for them, and that they

would leave the Earth to travel across the heavens.

?They built great ships to sail across the seas and even above

them, for the joys of flying were discovered with their newfound

understanding of the world and its natural laws. Soon they landed

parties of explorers on every continent. They established colonies

and erected smaller prisms that would collect the radiant energies

of the First prism to feed them power while far from their island

home.

?It wasn?t long before they met their poorer cousins scraping out

a marginal existence in the wilderness. These people had simple tools

and only the rudiments of language. They were fearful of the explorers

because they could not understand them, and they fled from them or

fell to their faces in worship.

?But the explorers were noble people and did not seek to exploit

their lesser cousins. Instead they withdrew to their sanctuaries and

hid them from the primitives. On occasion one of them would go

out and attempt to teach the wandering tribes some useful skill or

idea to help them along. More often than not the attempts failed,

and the explorers soon left the primitives to their own devices;

trusting to time that one day they would be more receptive to the

lessons.?

He stopped speaking. Ukyo and Nabiki were clearly fascinated

by his story. Kuno seemed a little lost.

He drew them close to him and spoke softly, almost as if he was

afraid someone would overhear his words. ?In time, all could have

been as these noble people envisioned. But in their pride and in their

ignorance they did not understand what it was they had done when

they chained the Heart of the World.

?The Heart of the World would not be bound for long; for it

answers to forces that bind the world to the universe itself. After a

thousand years it broke free of its bonds and coursed freely once

more through the Earth. The planet was not prepared for such a

release; the continents trembled and volcanoes burst forth the Heart

of the World?s vengeance. Mighty storms raged across the world for

decades and the sea swallowed up the island, never again to see the

light of day.

?All who lived on that island perished the day the Heart of the

World broke free. Only a few thousand survived that catastrophe.

Those who were left were scattered across the world in their little

colonies, now without the power they had grown so dependent on.

?When the storms subsided and they realized what had happened,

they knew that their civilization had fallen irrevocably. But after

basking in the radiance of the Heart of the World?s energies for so

long, they had changed. Most of them had stopped aging, and they

were armored against the little woes of disease and injury that struck

down their poorer cousins. They still had some of their power;

whatever coursed through the natural channels of the earth they

could use as they saw fit.

?Their dreams had died with the fall of their people, but they did

not give up all hope. For they knew that one day their lesser cousins

would mature and advance as they themselves had done when the ice

receded from the lands so long ago. The survivors dedicated themselves

to nurturing and protecting the rest of humanity, so that one day they

could do what my ancestors failed to achieve.

?And so they went out into the world in twos and threes, and

sometimes alone and other times in larger companies. They established

settlements near promising tribes and came to them not as gods, but

as teachers. On occasion they would take the women of these tribes

to wife, in the hope that their seed would strengthen the people they

sought to advance.?

?This story sounds familiar,? Ukyo said to him. ?At least the part

about the island sinking into the sea.?

?Such legends have permeated the cultures of the world for

millennia. Though men call it Atlantis or Mu or N?r or even

Avalon or Eden, it is all the same. All the same.?

?So how old are you?? Nabiki asked.

?I was born to the name of Sil Amarn roughly eight-thousand years

ago at the settlement of Kharsag, near Mt. Hermon in what is now

Lebanon. My parents were Survivors, and what I have told you I know

from them.?

?You mean to tell me that you?re immortal?? Nabiki asked.

Aerandir shook his head. ?I am as subject to death as you or Ukyo

or the Blue Thunder. I do not age in body, and I am proof against

disease and niggling injury, but I may be slain by violence or accident,

or, like many who have gone before me, may pine away and die

under the weight of the ages.?

?You said that this ?Heart of the World? was coming again soon,?

Ukyo began.

?June 23rd,? Nabiki interjected.

?And that it couldn?t be held,? Ukyo continued. ?Well Ranma and

Akane are going to be right in the middle of it, I just know it!?

?That is quite possible,? Aerandir said. ?But perhaps they must.?

Nabiki felt Kuno stiffen at her side at the direness in Ukyo?s voice

when she spoke of Ranma and Akane. Wheels were turning in his head,

and suddenly she knew he wouldn?t be staying long on this island. He

would leave at the first opportunity, even if he had no idea where he

could find Ranma and Akane.

?I think I have said all that I should about this,? Aerandir said to

them. ?I bid you good-night.?

?Aerandir?? Nabiki found herself asking.

?Yes, Nabiki??

?How long do you plan to stay here??

?I shall weigh anchor the morning after tomorrow,? he replied.

?Do you know where you?re going??

He smiled wanly for her. ?Yes I do... Although I would not mind

your company, I would ask that you stay here on the island. You are

not safe anywhere else in this world, and I fear your evasion of the

Russians will only provoke them to greater and more open acts of

violence against you should they find you again.?

With that he bid them good-night once more and left them in the

garden under the stars.

Chapter Four

? Welcome to the Alhambra! ? A sweaty man in a brown business

suit called to them. ? I am Miguel Jesus de Santa Clara, the Director

of Tourism for the city of Granada. ?

Ranma looked past the man to the tall stone walls and the square

towers of the Alhambra fortress proper. The many mosques and palaces

of the castle lay beyond those formidable walls. He could see pennons

and banners fluttering from the tops of the towers and minarets. The

Sierra Nevadas mountains loomed behind the castle in purples and

greys. The sky was blue and cloudless, and the Spanish summer sun

beat down upon the cobblestone pavement.

Professor McFogg exchanged pleasantries with the man and an

associate from the University of Granada. It seemed the Professor

and the man from the university knew each other well. They were

joined by the Curator for the Alhambra, a man distantly related to

the reigning King of Spain, Juan Carlos I.

In the meantime Ferguson, Ames, Hiro and Ranma ported the

equipment past them and into a side gate to the castle used by the

staff. They carried four Ferguson?s boxes, armloads of A/V equipment,

and various data recording and storage gear. Ranma brought up the

rear carrying several hundred yards of power and optical cord.

Akane and Katy Price watched them work from the shelter of

large parasols.

? I can?t stress enough the need for discretion, ? Miguel said,

echoing the sentiments of the Curator, who only spoke Spanish.

? This is the height of the tourist season. ?

? Of course Mister de Santa Clara. My people will be quite

discreet. I would like to extend my thanks to you and especially to

His Majesty for your gracious assistance on such short notice. ?

McFogg replied in his best diplomatic manner.

Miguel and the Curator led them inside the main gate. Akane and

Katy quickly joined them. Once past the main gates they were taken

to an office room which was thankfully air-conditioned.

?How much more to go?? Ranma asked Hiro.

Hiro shifted the heavy crate they carried together for a better grip.

?I think this is the last trip.?

?Good. Goin? from England to the middle of this is killing me,?

Ranma said as a rivulet of sweat trickled down the side of his face.

?You said it. Even Korea didn?t seem this hot. It must be at least

39 degrees out here.?

? What was that, Hiro? ? Ferguson asked. He was walking past

them from the other direction with some kind of hand-held

instrumentation.

? I said it must be at least 39 degrees out here. ?

? Forty-one, ? Ferguson corrected. He kept pacing past them.

?Yeah but it?s a dry heat,? Ranma said with little humor in his voice.

They set the crate down next to the rest of the gear. Once the

Alhambra closed for the night they would begin setting up the

equipment. Ranma and Hiro slid down the side of the smooth

stone walls and sat resting.

? Has anyone seen Clay? ? Ames asked. He was busy inventorying

all of the equipment and segregating it in some manner only he was

sure of.

? Not since we left the hotel this morning, ? Ferguson replied.

He was now busying himself with inspecting the Ferguson?s boxes.

? It?s just like him to skip out when there?s work to be done,?

Ames mumbled.

? We?ll go find him, ? Hiro offered, gesturing to himself and

Ranma.

?Thanks for volunteering me. I was just gettin? comfortable.? Ranma

said in response. He stood up and stretched out.

?Aw come on, where?s your sense of adventure??

?I left it on the plane.?

While the others talked, Akane soon found herself quite bored.

She slipped out of the office under the pretense of powdering her

nose and started looking for Ranma. Once outside, she looked

about in wonder for the place.

The Alhambra was rich in Islamic architecture. Graceful arches

supported vaulted ceilings and exquisite tilework adorned the walls

and floors. It was once the seat of the western Umayyid Dynasty

following their near extinction during the Islamic faith?s schism in

the eighth century. It had remained a Muslim stronghold until 1492

when forces under Ferdinand V of Castille and Isabella of Aragon

conquered it and thus the last of Muslim held Spain. (Coincidentally

allowing the two monarchs time to listen to a certain Genoese sailor

talk about a passage west to the Indies.)

Including herself, the place was full of gawking tourists. Guides

showed them about the castle speaking several different languages.

She looked around hopefully, but didn?t see any Japanese tour

groups. She continued on.

Where could that idiot be?

She found Ferguson and Ames as they worked on their equipment.

? Have you seen Ranma? ?

Ferguson looked up from his work.

? He took off with Hiro to find Clay. ?

? Which way did they go? ?

He shrugged. ? No idea, lass. ?

Akane started off without another word, which suited Ferguson

enough. He had work to do and little time for idle chatter.

She proceeded down a hall with an arched ceiling and ornamental

columns inlaid with Islamic proverbs and scripture from the Koran.

Stars were painted on the deep blue ceiling and the hammered bronze

still shined despite the wear of the ages. A tour guide gave her a

dubious look but said nothing as she passed.

At the end of the hall was an open air courtyard and garden. High

walls of stone and dull cream colored plaster were bright relief against

the slate grey tilework of the floor. Ranma wasn?t to be found.

She decided to turn back before she got lost. Ranma would show

up sooner or later, probably when he got hungry. She could count on

that at least.

As she turned to go, she ran into someone behind her. She

stammered an apology in Japanese, remembered that she wasn?t

in Japan, switched to English, and then with a slight cry of frustration

realized she was in Spain.

The woman nodded calmly for her. Her grey-green eyes sparkled

in a way that made Akane jealous.

?Perdoname,? she said, and offered a smile.

Akane watched her go. She was very pretty, so tall and graceful,

and her skin! She?d never seen such a pale complexion, particularly

not in sunny Spain. It almost glowed.

Almost like oil on water...

?HEY!? Akane cried.

The woman was lost in the press of the tourists, and now people

were starting to stare at her. She decided to leave. Quickly.

She started back the way she came. When she was out of the sight

of those in the court yard she started to run to put some distance

between them. She was so embarrassed! It was in this state of mind

that she plowed through Ranma and Hiro like a freight train.

When the dust had settled, Akane looked down to see Ranma flat

on his back and staring up at her with one eye tightly shut in pain. He

rubbed at the lump on the back of his head where it had been

introduced to the Alhambra?s floor. His teeth were clenched in an

effort to keep from spewing forth strings of obscenities that no one

needed to hear in any language. Particularly Akane.

Hiro picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off.

?What?s the big rush??

?Yeah Akane, whaddya tryin? to do, kill someone?? Ranma

muttered from beneath her. He hissed as the lump on his head

began to throb.

?I saw her!? Was all Akane could reply.

?Saw who?? Hiro asked.

?That woman! Ana whatever! I just saw her!?

?Jeez, calm down a minute,? Ranma said. ?And let me get up.?

Akane let him get up.

?Now start over,? Ranma said. He wasn?t sure if he heard her right

the first time. His ears were ringing too loudly.

?I saw that woman you told me about,? Akane began. ?I bumped

into her while I was looking for you.?

?Anazali? She actually let you see her?? Ranma asked.

?What? You mean you told Akane about her too?? Hiro asked.

Akane threw him a black look.

?Sorry!? Hiro apologized.

?Where did she go?? Ranma asked. He wanted another chance to

speak to her.

?I lost her in a crowd of tourists. I?m sorry Ranma.?

He rubbed at his head again. ?Forget about it. When she?s ready to

talk to us, she will.?

They started back towards the side gate and the equipment.

McFogg, Katy, Miguel, and the Curator had joined Ferguson and

Ames. McFogg was showing them what equipment they would be

using. The Curator had a few questions for them, and Miguel

translated.

Ferguson took Ranma and Akane aside while the others conversed.

? See anything familiar? ?

? Not yet, ? Akane replied. Ranma nodded in agreement.

? If you do find something familiar, let me know. ?

? We will, ? Akane affirmed.

They toured around the Alhambra, admiring the art and sublime

beauty of the place. They came to a spectacular fountain of lion statues

streaming cool water from their maws into a large pool lined with lapis

lazuli and hammered copper which was polished bright every other

day by the staff.

? This place kinda looks familiar, ? Ranma remarked.

? Yeah, it does sort of, ? Akane agreed.

Ferguson made a quick sweep of the courtyard. His sensors failed

to register anything remarkable about the place.

? Doesn?t seem very special. I?m not reading any activity

conducive to a nexus. In fact I don?t even detect any lines present. ?

Ranma scratched his head.

? I coulda sworn this was the place I saw in my head. ?

? Me too, ? Akane added.

Ferguson adjusted the gain on his sensors. ? I?m still not getting

anything... Tell you what, I?ll check this courtyard every day for any

changes. In the meantime we still have all of the upper gardens and

two more palaces to look through. Let?s be going shall we? ?

Night had fallen in the city of Granada. With the setting of the sun

came new life as shopkeepers reopened their doors and families took

relaxing walks through the narrow winding streets. Dogs barked and

children yelled, and when Ranma closed his eyes it was almost like

home.

Akane came up behind him as he looked out from their sixth

floor hotel balcony. She put an arm around his waist and leaned on

the railing next to him. The first thing he noticed about her was how

nice she smelled.

There was a time not very long ago when such casual intimacy

was anything but. Even now his heart fluttered a bit as she touched

him. She noticed this and a faint smile crept across her mouth.

?What shall we do tonight?? She asked him.

?Huh?? He replied, lost in space as usual.

?I asked you what we should do tonight. I don?t want to stay in the

hotel all night. The Professor is a sweet old man, but I don?t think I

could sit and play bridge with him and the others ?til three in the

morning.?

He looked at her and cocked his head. ?What?s there to do here??

She blew out her breath in mounting frustration with him. ?Let?s

find out!?

He looked back to the streets below. ?Sure...?

?If you?re going to be so enthusiastic about it, I should probably

go find Hiro. I?m sure he wouldn?t mind going out.?

?Don?t drag Hiro into this,? he said, keeping his eyes looking out

across the city.

She leaned over and kissed him behind the ear. ?I?m going to get

changed. If you?re not ready to go, I?ll find Hiro.?

She flicked his pig-tail over his shoulder and stepped back into the

room. He turned back to watch her.

?And if Hiro won?t go, I?ll go out alone,? she added, and pulled

the drapes over the door.

Ranma bit his lip but kept his silence.

Damn. I give into her once and now she thinks I?ll do it again.

He pounded his fist on the rail.

?And she knows I won?t let her go out alone... Damn!?

He pounded the rail once more and went inside.

Akane was dressed out in a short white skirt and black halter which

made her pale skin glow in the brilliance of mercury vapor street lamps.

Hiro was wearing jeans and a white collared shirt and black tie beneath

a sharp looking black leather vest. Ranma of course was wearing his

Chinese style clothes; black trousers and dark green tunic.

They left McFogg, Ferguson, Ames, and Clay playing bridge in

the smoking lounge. Katy had gone out with the man from the

University. The haze of pipe and cigar smoke wafting in spirals

around a lazy ceiling fan reminded Akane of why she wanted to go

out. They bid the three young people good night and got back to

their cards.

Hiro supplied them with a goodly sum of Spanish pesetas as they

went out the doors of the hotel. None of them spoke any appreciable

Spanish, but Hiro was good with languages and had been practicing

a few of the more useful phrases for them to get around. He hailed

a taxi about a block from the hotel and after a few minutes got his

point across.

?Where are you taking us?? Akane asked. Like Ranma, she had

no idea what it was Hiro had said to the cabbie.

?A nightclub, I think.?

?Great!?

The cab pulled over and dropped them off outside what was

obviously a popular nightclub by the look of the crowds waiting to

get in. Music pulsed through the open doors, what sounded like a

Spanish influenced Acid-House sound. Hiro paid the cabbie and

they got out.

?We gonna stand in line all night?? Ranma asked, gesturing to

the crowd.

?Not if I can help it,? Hiro replied. He started down the street.

Akane grabbed Ranma?s arm and led him on.

?Where are we going?? Ranma asked.

?Bound to be another club around here somewhere,? Hiro replied.

?We can always go back if there isn?t. Besides the night is young and

the place probably just opened up. if we?re lucky the line will go away

in a little while.?

? Do you see them? ? Fyodor asked.

? I have them in sight. They are proceeding east along Santiago,

on the opposite side of the street. ? A man with a low light scope

replied. He peered through it from the shadows of the rented sedan

they had parked across the street about a block from the club. The

street lights were mostly nonfunctional in this part of town, which

suited them fine. Greasy cigarette smoke wafted over the man?s head.

? Stay with them. ?

? How close? ?

? Keep your distance. We still don?t have authorization. ?

? We lost them in Tokyo because we waited for that. ?

Fyodor sizzled at the thought.

? You do not have to remind me, Yevgeny Illyavich. I am aware

of this. I am also aware that the consulate will not lift a finger to

help us if we are caught by the authorities should we proceed without

authorization. ?

Yevgeny grunted in disgust.

? It was easier in Afghanistan, ? he remarked bitterly. No one to

complain when dirty work had to be done. Politics was a double edged

sword.

? True enough. Now go. ?

Yevgeny left the car, flicking his cigarette butt into the gutter

as he went.

They found another club, El Torador. This one wasn?t so crowded,

at least outside. After paying a modest cover and getting a once over

from the bouncer at the door, they walked inside. They hit a wall of

Moroccan tobacco smoke, something acidic that was definitely not

tobacco, and the sharp odor of fresh sweat.

The place was crowded enough. The music blared from speaker

stacks at the standard deafening levels. Belgian techno pulsed around

them, fast heavy beat driving the throngs of sweat glistening bodies

that gyrated on a hardwood dance floor in the center of the club.

The place was full of late teens and early twenty-somethings, most

of them students from the University.

Hiro made for the bar. Ranma managed to grab the last available

table and scrounged up three stools for them. Akane busied herself

ogling over the dozens of eligible Granadan men in tank tops and

luscious well tanned skin. Ranma retaliated by eyeing the women

in their two-sizes too small tops and miniskirts.

The music shifted without pause to something studio polished

and Italian with lots of sampling from American television shows

mixed in. Hiro returned with three bottles in his hands. He set them

before the two.

?It?s Spanish, but it looked okay when I watched the bartender

pour it!? Hiro shouted over the music.

Ranma took a swig. He had tasted better, but there was something

to be said about a beer when you had been sweating all day. Akane

had no taste for beer and let hers sit.

?So whaddya think?? Hiro shouted.

?Not bad so far!? Akane replied. ?I like the music!?

?Good! Maybe we can even get Saotome out on the floor!? He

pointed to Ranma. ?He?s a hell of a dancer!?

Akane laughed. ?Ranma??

Ranma shook his head.

?Oh yeah!? Hiro returned. ?You should have seen him at my going

away party. They were having this party in the barracks for me ?cause

I was going back to the lines. Of course none of them knew I was

gonna go on the Chancellor Mission with my old buddy here instead.

Yes indeed Akane-chan, he got out in the middle of the room with a

bottle of sake in one hand and this guy with a broken leg in the other.?

Hiro looked to Ranma, who was smiling at the memory in spite

of himself.

?What was that guy?s name again??

?Yamaga I think. I just remember that he liked American heavy

metal and he had a broken leg.?

?Ranma dancing?? Akane cried, amazed at the concept.

?He was great!? Hiro affirmed.

Akane slugged Ranma playfully in the arm. ?Come on then, let?s go!?

?What!??

?Let?s dance!? She tugged at his arm.

?I can?t dance to this!? Ranma protested. He shot a look to Hiro

to keep quiet.

Hiro would have none of that. ?Same stuff you danced to last time

Saotome!?

?Okay! Okay! I?m going!? He killed the beer in one shot because

he decided he was going to need it. Akane led him out onto the floor.

The next tracks were Industrial, some underground mixes from the

Berlin club scene. It had just enough of that raw Cold War East German

edge to it to pump you with all the power you needed to get out on the

floor. The sounds of steel sledge hammers ringing from blows thrown

by New Soviet Men clashed against the pounding bassline and chainsaw

howl of heavily mixed guitars. The lights strobed and flashed

spasmodically in patterns known to cause epilepsy in a small

percentage of the population.

Ranma felt his blood pounding in his veins as he got into the beat.

Akane was a little timid at first, but then most Japanese girls were

when it came to dancing to this stuff. Being a martial artist, and a

damn fine one at that, he had the rhythm and he had the grace.

Even with this angst driving brain smashing stuff that thundered

from the speakers.

The floor had cleared out around him to give him room. Most of

the crowds gawked and even cheered as Ranma Saotome went

ballistic. His pigtail bobbed and shook wildly around his head. Akane

dropped back to Hiro and laughed at the sight. She loved it.

When the DJ shifted back to relatively sedate House sounds the

crowds returned to the floor. Ranma brought himself down to an

appropriately sane level and Akane jumped back in to dance with

him. He was hot to the touch, so hot she could feel it rippling off

his body. His tunic was open halfway down his chest to bleed off

the heat. He was beading sweat down his face and arms, and the

smell of him suddenly thrilled her to no end.

?You were great!? Akane cried.

Ranma shrugged.

?I mean it! This is something of you I never expected to see!?

?Neither did I.?

She moved in closer to him then. They were almost touching but

never quite reaching each other. She soaked up the heat that radiated

furiously from him and laughed all the while looking into his eyes.

They had moved on to another club, one a little ways up the

street that had a larger dance floor and more table space. Ranma

commandeered them a booth as Hiro started dancing with a couple

raven tressed beauties who went crazy over his Japanese features.

Hiro, Ranma noted, was no slouch in the dancing department either.

Akane sat next to him at the booth. This place served wine and

Akane had helped herself to a bottle of the stuff. She was good and

tipsy. Part of him hoped her libido would be similarly stimulated as

it had that night at the mansion. The other part ruefully admitted

that it was going to be a long night getting her home if she got truly

sloshed.

Fortunately Akane seemed to know her limits and slowed down.

She pulled him out on the floor again, and all the activity helped her

sweat it out. They were dancing against each other now, and it was

driving Ranma crazy within.

And then when his lips began brushing against the hot salty skin

of her neck he saw Anazali.

She was dancing with some young stud from Barcelona. Her grey-

green eyes glittered with the stage lights and her luminous skin was

like a wreath of opalescent fire about her graceful form. Her hair

was piled up atop her head and held in place with long gold pins that

dangled little red silk pompoms as she bobbed her head to the beat.

She winked at him as he saw her.

Enjoying ourselves are we? She asked in his mind.

?Trying to,? he replied.

?What was that?? Akane asked at his ear.

?Uh, nothin?. Just thinkin?.?

?Oh?? Her voice had taken a silken timbre that carried even over

the pulse and thump of the music. ?About what?? She purred. The last

time he had heard that voice she had swapped bodies with some

maniacal ?vengeful spirit? doll that tried to kill him. He shuddered at

the memory.

What fascinating adventures you?ve had! Anazali remarked with

a mental laugh. She could read his surface thoughts easily enough.

Stay outta my head! Ranma thought back.

You won?t hear me over the music if I do.

I can live with that, he replied.

Then I guess you don?t want to hear what I have to say to you.

Hey waitaminute! That ain?t fair!

Isn?t fair, Anazali corrected. Even in your mind your grammar

is atrocious.

Whatever, just don?t run out on me like this!

Anazali smiled for him. Her teeth were so white and straight they

could have been used as a credit reference.

Very well. If you can tear yourself away from your lovely fianc饠

for a minute I?ll speak to you face to face.

If it?s all the same, could you let Akane see you too?

She already has.

I mean could you include her in what you have to tell me.

As you wish.

By this time Akane had noticed Ranma?s peculiar distraction.

When it seemed that this distraction had nothing to do with her she

got very suddenly irate.

I suggest you do something quickly Ranma: Akane is starting to

notice that your attention is elsewhere. I?m sure you know what that

means... For good measure she threw some of Akane?s surface

thoughts and feelings into his mind. They sounded remarkably like

?RANMA YOU JERK!!!?

He couldn?t think of anything else to defuse her in the fraction of

a second it would take for her to clobber him, so he followed his

instincts, took her up into his arms, and kissed her for all he was

worth. She gasped a little in surprise at first, but that quickly melted

into delight. Her arms came up around the back of his neck and

together they moved to the beat as they embraced.

Bravo! Marvelous improvisation! Vincit Amor omnia, regit Amor

omnia! Anazali cheered in his mind.

They parted breathlessly.

?What was that for?? She asked with a shy smile.

?Uh, just because,? he replied sheepishly.

Anazali chose this moment to step up to them. Akane tensed in

Ranma?s arms as she saw her. Ranma saw Hiro nearly spit out his

drink from across the floor.

?May I speak to you for a moment?? She asked politely above the

thud and thump of the music.

Akane looked at her, then at Ranma. The pig-tailed martial artist

nodded and followed after Anazali as she led them off the floor.

Akane stayed close at Ranma?s side. Hiro could be seen maneuvering

through the crowds to reach them.

Anazali left the club and led them into the warm night air of the

city. Once they were a block from the nightclub she bade them sit on

a bench in a small tree lined park. The elms swayed with the breeze

and lent their fragrance to the night.

?I?m glad to see you here Ranma,? Anazali began. ?It helps prove

that you are who we think you are.?

?And what?s that?? Ranma asked.

?Who?s this ?we??? Akane added.

?Who ?We? are is not important right now,? Anazali replied coolly.

?What is important is that you and Ranma continue to guide Professor

McFogg to the events as they happen.?

?Why? I mean besides curing our ki?s?? Ranma asked. And my

Jusenkyo curse...Or was that just bait?

?Each energy surge you expose yourselves to in an opening line

nexus is not only restoring your ?ki? but is also conditioning you. There

isn?t much time left and you?ll need as much exposure as possible

before the end of the cycle event.?

?You?re still not telling us what we?re in the middle of,? Ranma

said with a touch of venom. ?I don?t like bein? someone?s pawn.?

Anazali looked sternly at him. Her eyes seemed to glow a with a

faint lambent flame.

?Are ya gonna tell us or what?? Ranma pressed.

?I am here to help you,? she soothed. Her expression softened

considerably ?Please don?t forget that... Unfortunately I can tell you

only what I am permitted to tell you. There are those among the

people I answer to that are not convinced that you are the ones.

Until they are satisfied I cannot reveal more than this:

?You and Akane may be the only hope we have to avert a world

wide disaster.?

?What?? Ranma and Akane cried in unison. ?Why us??

?If you must know, you came to our attention last winter,?

Anazali said, looking directly at Ranma. ?In the Taebaek Mountains

of North Korea.?

?Chancellor...? Ranma replied softly. The night a hundred thousand

men died so that twenty million could live.

?Precisely,? Anazali affirmed. ?Your release of energy on the

mountain was felt by us on the other side of the world. That was

when we started to watch you.?

?You mean when I blasted the rocket?? Ranma asked. He thought

about it for a moment. ?Yeah, I guess that was the hardest Cyclone

Dragon Fist I?ve ever thrown.?

?Yes. You didn?t know it at the time, but you tapped into a line

nexus running through the mountain when you destroyed the missile?s

booster. It was because you could do such a thing that we began to

keep an eye on you.?

?Will someone tell me what you?re talking about?? Akane asked

desperately. Operation Chancellor was something Ranma had never

discussed with her. She knew it was the reason he had gone back to

the fighting, and that because of it the Second Korean War had ended.

Everything else was classified, and Ranma had kept mum about it.

She always suspected that there was more than National Security in

his silence, but had not pressed the issue out of respect for his

privacy. (She did hope that one day he would open up about it,

however.)

Ranma ignored her, pressing his attention on Anazali. ?Okay, so

I understand where I come into this, sort of, but how did Akane get

dragged in??

Anazali chuckled. ?I thought that was rather obvious.?

?Yeah, well how about explaining it for me anyway.?

?Akane is your complement.?

?Excuse me?? Akane cried.

?And Ranma is yours,? Anazali added for her benefit.

?What?s that supposed to mean?? Ranma asked. He had a few

ideas, and the thought of them was starting to make him weak in the

knees.

?It means you?re both two parts of one whole.?

That had Ranma squirming nervously in his seat.

?It?s nothing to be ashamed of,? Anazali told him. ?I like to think

it?s rather special. And because of it we need both of you, not just

you Ranma.?

?To stop some world wide disaster that you can?t tell them about,?

Hiro Ohata said from the sidewalk.

Anazali turned her head to face him. ?I was wondering when you

would say something, Mister Ohata.?

?I?m saying it now,? Hiro barked. ?If you?re really here to help

them, you could start by telling them exactly what they?re involved

with. They might not have any choice, but you at least owe them a

full explanation.?

?And if I refuse do you plan to shoot me with the pistol under

your vest??

Hiro brushed at the shiny black leather. ?If that?s what it comes

down to.?

?You don?t have to do this Hiro,? Ranma said quickly. ?Everything?s

all right.?

Anazali looked back to Ranma. ?Your friend is very loyal to you.

I respect that as I respect his sincerity. But it changes nothing.?

?Sorry to hear that,? Hiro growled. ?Ever since Scotland I?ve had

this feeling that something bad was gonna happen and now I think I

know why.? He drew the Sig and held it low in his hand.

?Put the gun away Hiro,? Ranma advised. ?I believe what Anazali?s

told us.? He cast a sharp eyed glance to her. ?Even if she hasn?t told

us everything.?

?You sure about this, Saotome??

He looked at Akane, then to Anazali. ?Yeah.?

Hiro holstered his pistol. ?If I find out you?re not on the level

with us then I?m capping you lady. Count on it.? He turned away and

started back towards the club. ?I?ll be back in the club if you need

me,? he called over his shoulder.

Anazali regarded Ranma and Akane as they sat in silence on the

park bench.

?Mister Ohata?s concern for you is not unfounded,? she told them.

?You must take great care in your travels. There are others who want

you for what you can do for them.?

?What?s that??

?Why point the way to the next event, of course. That was the

primary reason I needed to speak with you. To warn you about the

others.?

?So who are these others?? Akane asked in a hushed voice.

?There is a group of Russians,? Anazali began.

?Casimir?s group?? Akane asked.

?They are a faction of Doctor Casimir?s group. They are quite

ruthless, and they have discovered what you and Ranma are to

Professor McFogg.?

?There are others too,? Ranma observed. He wasn?t sure how

he knew this, it was just a hunch.

?Yes. There are others... If you ever meet someone like me,? she

gestured to her pearlescent skin glowing under the street lamps. ?And

I am not accompanying them, you must flee from them as best you

can. They may claim to be from me, or from the people I represent,

but they are not. This is very important for you to remember, and

you should tell Mister Ohata what I have told you as well.?

?What about you, you?re supposed to be helping us, right?? Ranma

asked.

?I can?t always be there to watch over you.?

?So it?s up to us.?

?Yes. I must be going now. I shall meet you again after the next

event, but unless something important comes up, not before. Farewell!?

She vanished right before their eyes. Akane gasped in surprise.

Ranma was expecting it, and was watching for some other telltale sign

of her passing. He was rewarded with the faintest sounds of footsteps

receding into the night.

?So when is the next event? And where?? He called to her.

You?ll know when the time comes. You are much more sensitive

to these things now.

Akane turned to Ranma with a confused look on her face. Right

then he knew that she had heard Anazali?s parting words in her mind

as well.

?Well now you?ve met Anazali,? Ranma sighed. ?Are things

starting to make any more sense for you??

?Not a bit,? she replied quietly.

?You and me both.? He put an arm around her and drew her close.

?I?m a little scared about this, Ranma.?

?Me too Akane. Me too.? He gave her a comforting squeeze.

?You aren?t supposed to be afraid of anything, dummy!? She said

with just enough light heartedness to make him laugh softly.

?Yeah well that was when I was young and stupid.?

?As opposed to now??

?Now I?m just stupid.?

She giggled once and socked him playfully in the arm as she stood

up. He rose with her.

?Yep, you?re a crusty nineteen. Over the hill,? she observed with

another laugh. It was a nervous laugh, and Ranma knew it was a brave

front for her. He was willing to play along if she was.

?Let?s go find Hiro,? he said and offered his hand. ?I think we

should call it a night.?

She took it in hers. As she touched him he thought about what

Anazali had told them. They complemented each other. He sort

of liked the idea; the only problem was that he had been raised to

do everything himself, to rely only on himself and his abilities.

Adding Akane to that formula was alien and frightening at the same

time that it thrilled him.

Chapter Five

They had passed five days in Granada without so much as an

electronic peep from the sensors or a single premonition in their

heads. The weather was hot, but they were adjusting to the Granadan

habit of taking the afternoon off and waiting for the sun to go down

before getting back to business. The sensor remotes would alert them

to any changes should they occur.

Professor McFogg sat in the smoking lounge of the hotel thumbing

through a copy of La Vanguardia, a large and popular Barcelona

newspaper. McFogg couldn?t read it as it was printed in Spanish,

but Ranma figured he had one from force of habit. The Times of

London was a bit hard to come by here.

He had gone jogging through the streets of the Old City and up

the hill to the Alhambra in the middle of the afternoon. As such he

was soaked with sweat and panting from the heat. The cool air of

the hotel was a bit of a shock to his system, and he plopped down

in a wicker chair next to the Professor.

? Good afternoon Ranma, ? the Professor offered. He turned

the pages of his newspaper and sipped at a Gibson martini.

? Hi Professor, ? Ranma huffed. ? Have you seen Akane

anywhere? ?

? I would have thought she went jogging with you. I would

assume this was not the case. ?

? Nah, she likes jogging early in the morning. I?m a bit of a late

riser. ?

? Hear hear! ? The Professor smiled.

Ferguson came into the lounge with Katy. Both had armloads of

data from the local surveys they had taken. Both seemed to be arguing

incessantly about something. The two walked past Ranma and the

Professor still arguing.

? I wish those two would try to be more accommodating towards

each other, ? McFogg remarked. ? I?m not certain as to how much

more of it I can stand. The longer we wait the more I fear we have

made a grave error. Were it not for your encounter with Anazali I

would have given up on Granada by now. In any event there is a

certain function I must attend in Monaco shortly, and I do wish this

event would materialize before then. ?

? Oh yeah? What?s in Monaco? And where is Monaco while

I?m asking. ?

? Monaco is along the French Riviera near Italy. It is a very small

Principality allied closely with France. Prince Rainier is an old friend

of mine, and he throws a grand charity ball this time in June. I would

be very disappointed if I missed it. ?

Ranma shrugged. ? As soon as I know something, you?ll know

something, Professor. ?

? I know, lad. One would think that age would have granted me

a spot of patience. ?

Ranma jumped up. ? I?m gonna go take a bath before I stink the

place up any more than I have already. See ya tonight. ?

McFogg raised his Gibson to him in salute.

Ranma went up to the room but Akane wasn?t there. He took a

bath and changed into a clean pair of shorts and a tank top. His next

stop was Hiro?s room.

He knocked at the door and Hiro answered.

?Come on in Saotome. Akane and I were just talking about you.?

Ranma peered over Hiro?s shoulder to see Akane seated on the

floor with a glass of iced tea in her hand.

?Oh yeah?? Ranma asked, a little curious.

?Don?t worry, we had nothing good to say about you.? Hiro

cracked.

?Good, you had me worried for a minute.?

Ranma sat down across from Akane, who smiled at him with her

eyes. She seemed on the verge of laughing, but held it in. Ranma

shifted a bit uncomfortably on the carpet. He was sure he was the

subject of such merriment.

?I?ll be seeing you Hiro,? Akane said all of a sudden and stood

up. ?Thanks for listening to me.? She stepped past them and to the

door.

Hiro shrugged. ?Anytime Akane-chan.?

Ranma started to get up.

?Hey Akane, wait up.?

?I?ll see you in a little while Ranma,? Akane said softly to him.

?I just need a little time to myself.?

Ranma begrudged her that. With the exception of his jogging trip

that afternoon, they hadn?t been out of each other?s sight for longer

than twenty minutes in the last five days. They both knew the

importance of spending time alone for the sake of sanity.

?Have a seat and stay awhile, Saotome,? Hiro offered.

?Sure.?

When Akane was gone and the door shut behind her, Hiro started

speaking.

?I didn?t get the chance to say anything about the other night,

but I?m sorry for overreacting with Anazali.?

?It?s okay man, this whole situation bothers me too.?

?I shouldn?t have drawn my pistol on her. That was uncalled for.?

?I forgive you man. Lighten up.?

Hiro blew out his breath in a rush. ?Sorry Ranma. Like I said the

other night, I?ve been feeling antsy about you and Akane ever since

Maes Howe. Hearing Anazali confirm my gut feelings hasn?t been

easy to deal with.?

Ranma clasped Hiro?s hand in his and squeezed it.

?We can deal with anything that comes up. You got my back

and I?ve got yours, just like old times.?

?All we need is Ryoga now,? Hiro added. ?I wonder where he

went??

?Who knows??

Hiro offered him a glass of iced tea.

?There?s something else I?ve been meaning to talk to you about.?

Ranma raised an eyebrow. ?Oh??

?Yeah. It?s about Akane.?

?Go on.?

?Well she and I have been having this little conversation ever

since Maes Howe. Just chatty stuff mostly. Most of it is about you.

Sometimes I tell her stories about you in the army, she tells me

about all the crazy things that happened to you in high school.

Anyways what I?m getting at is that I?m kinda getting to know

her... She lets things slip when she talks about you.?

?Like what?? This had his curiosity piqued.

Hiro paused to think about what he was going to say.

?I don?t know how to tell you this, and I?m pretty sure it?s none

of my business, but... Well I think that?s why she?s been talking to

me. It?s ?cause she can?t talk to you about it.?

Ranma?s hackles went up.

?What are you tryin? to say, Hiro??

?I?ll be blunt,? Hiro managed.

?Go on.?

Hiro took a deep breath.

?I don?t think Akane wants to be your fianc饠anymore.?

Ranma looked as if someone had just launched a sharpened

telephone pole through his guts.

?Don?t take it like this!? Hiro cried upon seeing Ranma?s reaction.

?How am I supposed to take it!? Ranma snarled. His blood was

beginning to boil.

?It?s not what you think!?

?Then what is it?!? He dropped into a fighting stance. He didn?t

know what he was doing, but this was the only way he solved

problems.

Hiro raised his hands in defense.

?The reason she doesn?t want to be your fianc饠anymore is

because she wants to be your wife!?

A second sharpened telephone pole hurled itself through Ranma?s

guts. A flaming telephone pole at that. The color drained from his

face. The room spun crazily. He passed out with an impossibly

confused look on his face.

Hiro looked down at his friend, who was off in La-La Land.

?He took that well...?

Ranma was silent through dinner. He couldn?t bring himself to

look at either Hiro or Akane. He was stewing in his own juices, and

it was starting to show.

? Is there a problem, old bean? ? Ferguson asked him.

? No, ? he replied. ? I?m just not very hungry. ?

He excused himself and left the table. Akane smiled for him, but

the look she received in response was one of hopeless turmoil and

confusion.

She looked away sharply in despair.

Akane cornered Hiro after dinner in the hallway outside their

rooms.

?You told him didn?t you.? It was an accusation, not a question.

?I thought that was what you wanted!? Hiro protested.

She looked away.

?Yes... and no.?

?I?m sorry for jumping the gun. I didn?t think he would take it

like this.? Hiro said quietly.

Akane looked back at him.

?No... No need to be sorry. I guess I?m just a little hurt by his

reaction.?

?He loves you Akane-chan. More than anything. I know this.?

?Then what?s the problem?? Akane said, nearly sobbing. Tears

welled at her eyes.

?Give him a little time to think this through.?

?It took two and half years for him to tell me he loved me. How

long do I have to wait??

?Just give him some time alone to think this through. You?ve been

patient this long Akane-chan, a few more days can?t hurt.?

?They do,? she said. She put her arms around him and hugged

him. ?Thank you Hiro,? she whispered.

Hiro blushed. ?Uh, don?t mention it.?

She wiped away her tears and took a deep breath.

?I?m acting like a perfect idiot,? she said to herself.

?Nobody?s perfect,? Hiro threw back.

She raised a fist. ?I oughtta slug you for that.? Then she smiled

and went to find the Professor.

Hiro wiped away the nervous sweat from his brow.

?That was a close one.?

He sighed and looked to Ranma?s room. The door was ajar. He

tensed, wondering if Ranma had heard what they had said.

He rapped lightly on the door. There was no answer. He stepped

through the door and into the darkened room.

Ranma was out on the balcony.

Hiro walked quietly to the balcony and stepped out to join Ranma.

Ranma was perched on the railing with his chin on his knees. His arms

were curled around his legs. The city was again shrouded in night. Far

below the voices of children echoed through the narrow streets as

they played under the street lights.

?Hey Ranma.?

?Akane send you??

?Nope. Came on my own thanks.?

?She?s mad isn?t she??

Hiro took a seat on a wicker chair set on the balcony.

?She?s a little upset, but I wouldn?t say she was mad.?

Ranma snorted. ?I think I would be.?

?Why do you say that??

Ranma was silent a moment. ??Cause I hurt her. Hurt her bad.?

?You wanna talk about it??

?I ain?t sure I?d know what to say.?

Hiro rocked back in the chair. ?How about saying what you feel.?

?I ain?t sure about that either.?

?I told Akane that you loved her. I wasn?t wrong was I??

Ranma was silent.

?Was I?? Hiro asked again.

?No you weren?t wrong.?

?So what?s the problem Saotome??

Ranma jumped up to his feet and stood balanced on the rail sixty

feet above the street. He looked down to the black pavement and

thought about just how far down it was. Then he twirled around on

one foot to look at Hiro.

?I didn?t want to hurt her... I don?t ever want to hurt her...

I?ve hurt her before, and it?s nothin? I?m proud of. But this...

...Shit... Man, I don?t know what I?m gonna do. I mean I love her, don?t

get me wrong, but marriage...?

He was a little surprised at himself for being able to say the word.

?Well what did you think being a fianc頭eant?? Hiro asked.

?I never had any say in the matter! My dad and her dad just

clapped their hands and that was that. I didn?t even like her when

we first met, and I think she hated my guts. The word fianc頷as

just a word, it didn?t mean anything... At least not back then.?

Hiro tried to imagine the horror of an arranged marriage. That

was one bullet he had managed to dodge.

?I?m just gettin? comfortable with the way things are now,?

Ranma went on. Hiro listened patiently. Ranma was opening the

flood gates and the only thing to be done was to let him go. ?All

my life I?ve had to be responsible for myself. My Old Man was

too busy getting us into trouble to look out for me... Look I know

this ain?t makin? any sense but if you can listen to Akane then you

can listen to me.?

?I?m listening,? Hiro said quietly.

?I don?t have a future right now... Yeah yeah, I know her dad?s

all but signed the dojo over to me -but I don?t know anything about

running a business... I marry her and then I have to take care of her

and provide for her and I don?t know what the hell I?m doing with

my life let alone hers... And it ain?t like I wouldn?t do it... I mean

if there?s one thing I learned from my Old Man it?s that you put

your family before yourself. Course I learned that by seein? how not

to act.?

He paused to collect his scattered thoughts.

?And that brings me to the other big problem: You know what

happens when two people get married??

?They live happily ever after?? Hiro asked with a grin.

?No you idiot -they have kids!?

Hiro suppressed a laugh when he saw how serious Ranma was.

?Well I guess that sort of thing does tend to happen,? he agreed.

?What kinda father could I be? What kinda husband??

?I?d say you?d do all right, Saotome.?

Ranma sighed remorsefully. ?Oh man I wish I shared your

optimism.?

?This is all my fault,? Hiro admitted. ?I should have kept my

mouth shut.?

Ranma dropped down to the balcony floor.

?Nah, it ain?t your fault. Now that I think about it, Akane has

been kinda hinting towards this. I shoulda seen it coming.?

Hiro stood up.

?You gonna work this out??

Ranma looked at him and nodded solemnly.

Hiro turned to go, hesitated, and then turned back to face Ranma.

?Talk to her Saotome. I mean really talk to her. Tell her what

you think, how you feel, anything. Say something to her so she doesn?t

have to second-guess you. I?ve noticed that neither of you are very

good at it. I think you?ve got someone really special and I don?t

want to see you blow this.?

His piece said, Hiro left Ranma to his thoughts.

? Seven days Professor. I?m really starting to get worried, ?

Ferguson said as he made his morning sensor rounds. The tourists

had yet to start arriving. The Alhambra was quiet in the early morning.

? Have a little faith, ? McFogg replied, though there was little

conviction in his words.

? Right-o, ? Ferguson said. He adjusted the gain on his sensor.

? Professor? ?

? Yes? ?

? Have you noticed anything amiss lately? ?

McFogg looked up from his copy of La Vanguardia. ? If you

mean between Ranma and Akane, I have noted that they are a bit

out of sorts. Just a lovers? spat I assure you. ?

? Well there is that, but what I?m talking about is more along the

lines of unexpected company. ?

McFogg nodded casually. ? It?s Tarchenko begging scraps. Pay

them no mind. ?

? Tarchenko again? I don?t see why Doctor Casimir tolerates

him. ?

The Professor harrumphed. ? Tarchenko?s family is powerful.

Grigory needs the funding and the influence to continue his research,

and Tarchenko?s family is a means. Never mind that Ivan was a spy

before he was a scientist. ?

? He?s not under the Central Committee?s thumb anymore.

Why doesn?t he just join us? He?s a brilliant man from the papers

of his I?ve read. ?

? Grigory is also a proud man, ? McFogg said sadly.

Clay appeared in the courtyard.

? Good news chaps, I think I?ve isolated a possible nexus. ?

? It must be quite faint, ? McFogg observed.

? Quite indeed, ? Clay replied. ? I?ve spent the entire week

trying to find it. I don?t think it has been active in a very long

time. ?

Ferguson grabbed his gear. ? Lead on, old bean. Let?s see what

that sensitive brain of yours can see that a quarter million Pounds

of electronics couldn?t. ?

Ranma had made an effort to get up with Akane to go running.

Things had been strained between them since that night in Hiro?s room.

There was no hostility between them, something Ranma hadn?t

expected from Akane, but they rarely spoke and seldom did much

together like they had these past few weeks. It was obvious that

Akane was hurt by his rejection -even if he hadn?t said it in so

many words.

Thus his efforts to make amends to her. She had actually

brightened when he asked if he could run with her. It was

something at least.

Now if only I could deal with the real problem between us...

He thought as they rounded the corner and started up the hill towards

the Alhambra. I?m just not ready yet!

As they pounded the pavement up the hill Akane took his hand.

He nearly tripped in shock. She pulled him along and he regained

his balance.

He looked up at her and she laughed softly at him. He reddened

at first, but then came to a sudden realization:

She?s gonna be there for me as much as I?ve been there

for her...

She smiled with her eyes and then turned to face the road ahead.

He was glad that she hadn?t given up on him yet, but the clouds

of his own uncertainty still darkened his soul.

I?m just not ready for this...Why can?t she understand that?

He hadn?t yet followed Hiro?s advice about talking to her. Truth

was he barely had the nerve to think about it much less broach the

subject with her. Maybe tonight, he promised himself.

As they ran they felt the breeze stiffen at their backs. Ranma?s

tongue began to tingle as if he was licking a battery. He looked in

surprise to Akane, who returned his expression with equal surprise.

?Now?? She asked him.

?I think so,? he replied with quickening pulse.

?Where??

?I don?t know.?

The breeze grew into a gust at their backs, driving them towards

the Alhambra.

Akane saw the square towers of yellow stone rising above them

and gasped.

?I remember it now!?

?What?? Ranma asked.

?The dream! From Maes Howe! The lions!?

?What??

?The lions! The fountain of lions! They spoke to me in the

dream!? She cried. Her pace quickened and Ranma stretched out

his stride to keep up with her. ?Why didn?t I remember this

before??

?They never talked to me!? he protested. ?What did they say??

?They told me that when I stood atop the Crown of Eternity not

to believe the things I might see. If I did, then everything I held dear

would be lost.?

?What the hell does that mean? What?s this Crown of Eternity??

?I don?t know!? She cried. ?That?s all they said to me.?

The wind now drove them on through the gates of the Alhambra,

which were flung wide by unseen hands. Ranma and Akane couldn?t

have stopped running if they wanted to. Their bodies were charged

with incredible vigor, making their deer swift steps light as air.

? Something is happening, ? Yevgeny observed. The unusual

wind seemed to sweep only the street Ranma and Akane took.

Within meters of either side of the narrow street the air was calm.

? I see it, ? Fyodor replied.

? Do we move? ?

? Not yet, ? Fyodor grunted. ? Not here. Arrangements have

been made, all we must do is maintain the surveillance. ?

? This waiting is irksome. We take too many risks by delaying. ?

? I want to move as well, but I have my orders Yevgeny.

Tarchenko is not a man to trifle with. We will wait, and we will

observe. ?

The strident wail of the Magnetic Anomaly Detector roused

Ferguson and Clay from their study of the Kirlian sensor logs taken

earlier that morning. Ames, who was busy tinkering with one of their

camcorders, looked up from his work with an excited look.

Ferguson and Clay rushed over to the small LCD display and

gawked in surprise.

? Where did this come from? ? Ferguson cried.

Katy stepped from around the corner. She and Professor McFogg

had also heard the alarm.

? What?s going on? ? Katy asked.

? I think this is it! ? Ferguson replied.

The wind suddenly swelled around them.

? Now I know this is it! ?

? Where is the nexus? ? McFogg thundered.

? The Fountain of Lions! ? Clay shot back. ? I?m certain of it! ?

Ames cursed.

? Our detectors are set up in the wrong place! ?

? We have to move them! ? Ferguson cried. He ran to the nearest

Ferguson?s box and scooped up the heavy tripod mounted sensor in his

arms. Ames grabbed another and Clay a third. Katy realized there was

no one else to get the fourth and ran as fast as she could manage in

heels towards it. McFogg took the heavy sensor from her, and

together they carried it behind the file of the other three scientists.

? Has anyone seen Ranma and Akane? ? McFogg puffed. ? It

would stand to reason that they would be aware of this! ?

? What about Hiro? ? Katy asked.

Hiro dashed from a nearby garden.

? Someone call my name? ? He asked. He took up the Ferguson?s

box from McFogg and Katy on the run. ? By the way, where are

we going? ?

They made it to the Fountain of Lions as the wind began to spiral

around the courtyard. Ferguson and Ames frantically set up the

Ferguson?s boxes as Hiro ran the cables to a back-up recorder.

The boxes themselves had internal data storage, but the data from

these events was priceless and irreplaceable.

Katy lent a hand and grabbed up the camcorder that Ames had

slung over his shoulder and began filming. McFogg and Clay

monitored such hand held gear as Ferguson had thought to

leave in the courtyard as insurance against this eventuality.

? Where are Ranma and Akane? ? Clay asked above the rush

of the wind.

The words were barely past his lips when the two came running

into the courtyard.

?There it is!? Akane cried.

?I see it!? Ranma returned.

?I think we have to be in the middle of the pool.?

?I was afraid you?d say that!? Ranma yelled over the wind. ?I kinda

get that feeling too.?

They ran past the scientists and jumped into the pool, which was

only a foot deep. They stood amidst the fountains that streamed forth

from the lions? mouths and felt the rising surge of energy coursing

through them. The spray of cold water soaked them to the bone.

?Now what?? Akane asked. Her wet locks of blue-black hair

billowed around her eyes. Sparkles of light danced before her, making

her look quite angelic and distracting Ranma from the task at hand.

(Whatever it was he was supposed to be doing here besides standing

in the middle of it.)

?Just relax I think.?

? Has anyone noticed anything strange about Ranma right now? ?

Clay asked at a yell.

Hiro spotted it first.

? Yeah! He?s still a guy! He didn?t change into a girl! ?

Ferguson and McFogg looked on in wonder. They had seen his

transformation several times before and were at a loss to explain why

he hadn?t become a girl.

As the wind tightened it?s spiral around the fountains Ranma and

Akane felt themselves being lifted once more off the ground. The

sparkles of light became brighter and more numerous, even Katy was

seeing them with her camcorder. Faint blue bands of light streamed

into the center of the fountains from four directions.

Ranma took Akane?s hands in his as they began to hang

weightless in the air.

?Ranma!? Akane cried. ?You?re still a guy!?

Ranma looked down to his wet chest. No breasts strained at his

tight fitting tank top. His hands were large and masculine. His sopping

wet hair was black. He was still a man.

A tear fell from his eye.

?Anazali was right!? Akane cried happily. ?This is a cure for your

curse!? The waves of energy that spiraled through them were making

them both giddy. The world seemed brighter and more beautiful

around them.

As the event reached it?s climax they threw their heads back in

rapture.

Ranma saw a long chain of mountains. The black rock was sharp

and jagged and steeped in frigid air. Vast snow fields stretched as far

as he could see. Massive glacial forms moved at a crawl beneath

dozens of meters of snow.

At the base of the mountains was a garden that glowed impossibly

with warmth within the confines of the frigid cordon of snow and ice.

Birds sang and sweet smelling flowers lent their heady fragrances to

the warm air. Lush fruits hung from trees of every kind known.

In the center of the garden stood his best friend, Ukyo Kuonji. She

was nude, her long mane of lustrous dark brown hair draped over one

shoulder and breast while leaving the other breast bare. She smiled for

him and he found himself taking her up into an embrace. Her lips were

so soft and tasted so sweet. Her scent was maddening and he was

filled with a sudden lust for her. He kissed her for what seemed an

eternity, lost in the rapture he felt for her. Then he began to make

love to her.

Akane saw the world ravaged by titanic storms. Hurricane winds

tore at homes and icy tidal waves crushed and drowned cities out of

existence. The Earth trembled and swallowed up people and places

whole. Fire belched into the sky from mountains thought long dead,

filling the air with choking ash and poisonous smoke.

At the center of it all she saw a small white stone pyramid set upon

a column of black basalt. Ukyo Kuonji stood guard over the thing as

it continued to orchestrate the destruction of the world. Akane couldn?t

believe Ukyo would be part of such a thing.

What followed made her cry out in anguish.

Ranma appeared next to Ukyo and took her into a passionate

embrace.

Her cries to him went unanswered. He and Ukyo lay down together

on the sweet grass and continued their embrace as the world destroyed

itself around them. Her eyes closed tight against what followed.

Remember what we told you Akane, the statue lions said to

her then. Ranma has his part to play in this and so do you. Without

you he cannot fulfill his duty; do not be distracted by things you know

to be untrue!

The two of them sunk into the water as the wind died away. Ranma

transformed into a girl. Akane looked at her with emotions ranging from

anger to hurt to despair. Ranma-chan couldn?t bring herself to look at

Akane, such was her shame at what her vision had shown.

?I?m sorry Akane,? she said in a hushed voice. ?That wasn?t me.

I mean, I didn?t have any control over myself; it was like watching a

movie. You gotta believe me!?

Akane was silent, but she took Ranma-chan into a hug.

?I think I understand, Ranma... I believe you.?

They stood up, soaking wet.

?Any idea what we were supposed to get from that?? Ranma-chan

whispered in Akane?s ear.

?I think it?s a warning,? Akane replied.

? That one was even bigger than Maes Howe! ? Ferguson noted

happily.

He walked over to them with his Kirlian.

? You two know the drill. ?

They stood apart from each other. He scanned them with the

Kirlian.

? Much better! ? He said to them. ? I think this is actually

working. You?re almost normal now. ?

? What did you see? ? Hiro asked.

Ranma-chan and Akane were both silent.

? Well? ?

? Well I saw a garden in the middle of a frozen waste,? Ranma-

chan said after a minute. ? Don?t ask me where. ?

? There was a big range of mountains there if that helps, ?

Akane added.

Clay sighed. ? I?m afraid that doesn?t narrow things down much,

but don?t worry, we?ll puzzle this out. ?

Ferguson turned to McFogg. He spoke quietly to him. ? Professor,

I?m still not close to a revised model. If Ranma and Akane can?t tell us

where we?re going, then we?re lost. ?

? I?m afraid you may be right Mister Ferguson, but we must keep

up hope. ?

End of Part Six

Author?s Notes:

1) Sarophan fondly refers to Ukyo as Ianthe (eye-An?-thee), which is

Greek for ?purple flower?. The poem referred to in the narrative is by

Walter Savage Landor. Here is part of the poem:

?From you, Ianthe, little troubles pass

Like little ripples down a sunny river;

Your pleasures spring like daisies in the grass,

Cut down, and up again as blithe as ever.?

2) The Kharsag Epic was recorded on 11 clay tablets by Sumerian

scribes around the third millennium BCE. The story is supposed to

relate to an event which occurred almost 12,000 years ago. It details

the arrival of ?luminous people? near Mount Hermon in present day

Lebanon. At this settlement they raised crops, irrigated their lands,

and tended to cattle and other livestock. These people were clearly

more advanced than their indigenous cousins, but are never detailed

in the Epic as being supernatural. (Very unusual for such a fantastic

tale told such a long time ago.)

Aerandir?s origins are derived from this epic, as are the origins of the

Elohim (Shining Ones), his ancestors. It?s a fascinating story, although

it is often relegated to the realm of ?alternative history?.

3) The City of Granada and particularly the Alhambra was the seat

of Islamic power in Western Europe. It was settled by the Berbers

(or Moors as they were later known), who came from North Africa

across the Mediterranean Sea in the 8th century near the site of an

ancient Roman settlement. Under Moorish rule the city of Granada

became a center for art, literature and science.

When it was conquered by the ?Catholic Monarchs? Ferdinand and

Isabella in 1492, they kept much of the city unchanged. A university

was founded there. The two rulers grew so fond of the city that they

were interred in the Cathedral there after their deaths.

4) ?Vincit Amor omnia, regit Amor omnia.? - ?Love conquers all,

Love rules over all.? Touching, isn?t it?

5) I borrowed a line from William Gibson. See if you can find it. (Hint:

it?s in the nightclub.)

Free the Nukes!


	7. Chapter 7

-Chasing the Wind-

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man,

Fission Park and Akane are caught in a science experiment in Nerima

that affects their ki. They experience terrible nightmares and lose their

fighting focus. Neither can get any sleep without being in close proximity

with the other. They call upon the scientists to help them through

Ranma?s friend from the Second Korean War, Hiro Ohata. Hiro

works for Professor Balthazar McFogg, the leader of the scientists,

as a kind of ?Man Friday?.

Hiro sends them to England where they become embroiled in a

worldwide search for electromagnetic ?events? like the one that

affected them in Nerima. In chasing these events they hope to find

a cure, but what they do find is that there is more going on than they

ever imagined.

Ranma meets a mysterious woman named Anazali, who is

following them. She claims to be their friend, and hints that the

end of their search will not only cure their ki problems, but may

also end Ranma?s Jusenkyo curse. They receive a vision during

the event in Scotland that takes them to Granada, Spain. From

there they experience the next event, and a very disturbing vision

hinting not only at a world wide disaster, but of the end of their

blossoming relationship as well.

Ukyo, Kuno and Nabiki are kidnapped by agents working for Ivan

Tarchenko, an assistant of a second research group that is studying

these events. They are taken to a dacha outside of Odessa, where

Ukyo is tortured. Kuno breaks them free and they flee across the

southern Ukraine. Tarchenko sends a group of men to pursue them

They are rescued from their pursuer, a vicious man named Fyodor,

by a stranger, who takes them to a ship belonging to his brother. His

brother, named Aerandir, is no less unusual, and he sails them to an

island in the Aegean sea to stay with his uncle.

Aerandir reveals to them that he is an 8000 year old descendant

of an ancient people whose land was destroyed by forces similar to

the event the scientists are looking for. He explains to them the

history of his people and that if steps are not taken, a second disaster

will befall the Earth.

Part Seven:

Reunions

Chapter One

?Ukyo!? A voice calls. ?Ucchan, where are you??

Ukyo looks up from her cooking.

It?s Ranma-honey! She thinks happily.

?I?m in here, Ranma-honey!?

Ranma appears. He is wearing his usual Chinese clothes; red

blouse and black trousers with the draw string legs. He grins for her

as he comes in.

?How was school today?? She asks him.

?It was okay. Only had to stand out in the hall twice this morning.

Only changed into a girl once. Fought Kuno as usual, punted him into

orbit.?

?Sounds better than usual,? Ukyo remarks. She pats him on the

head. He winces as she touches him.

?Oh! I?m sorry, Ran-chan.?

?Stupid Akane,? Ranma mutters, and rubs his head. ?I?m really

getting tired of her hitting me with that damn hammer of hers.?

Ukyo offers him a sympathetic look.

?Why do you put up with her??

Ranma shrugs.

?I gotta.?

Ukyo shakes her head slowly. She gathers her willpower and takes

a deep breath.

?You don?t have to. There are always alternatives.?

Ranma shrugs again. He smiles and the light of his gorgeous blue-

grey eyes makes Ukyo?s heart skip a beat.

?Any suggestions?? He asks. There is the slightest hint in his voice

that he is implying something she has longed to hear from him for so

long.

Ukyo is now turning somersaults in her heart.

I have to say it! She thinks desperately.

?Sometimes happiness is closer than you think.? It takes every

ounce of cool she can muster to say it.

Ranma draws closer to her.

?Really, now. Go on.?

Her pulse races like a prize quarterhorse in the final turn at

Churchill Downs.

?Sometimes the person you can give your heart to is right there

next to you,? she says softly, fighting to stay cool even as her heart

thunders in her ears. ?Sometimes that person is just waiting for you

to realize it.?

He drinks in the fire of her luminous trembling green eyes and

leans in close to her. She can see herself reflected in his eyes and

feel the soft breeze of his breath on her skin. She wants him to hold

her so badly that she is about to burst.

?You?re right... I?ve been thinkin? about a lot of stuff lately,? he

says to her. ?And the one thing I could kick myself for was for not

noticing how I felt about you Ucchan.?

?Really?? Ukyo asks hopefully.

?Yeah,? he says. ?Truth is I?ve always loved you, Ucchan.

Always. I?m sorry it took me so long to figure that out for myself.

You?ve always been there for me, and I?ve taken that for granted.

Never again.?

?Oh Ran-chan...? Her voice trails off.

He takes her into a tender embrace. His kiss sets her on fire from

within. The world brightens around her, and everything gleams with

an inner light.

Muted sunlight streamed in through cream colored drapes and

played across Ukyo?s face. Slowly she stirred in her bed and blinked

her eyes open. She felt so peaceful and contented.

She had another Ranma dream. She still had them even after

Ranma?s profession of love for Akane, but this was the first time

since then that they hadn?t cut her to the quick. This was the first

time she had dreamed of Ranma falling in love with her that didn?t

leave her weeping in her bed and soaking the pillows with her tears.

She sighed dreamily and slipped out of bed. Reality would assert

itself soon enough, and she wanted these good feelings to last. That

Ranma at the very least loved her like a sister was some small buffer

against the eventual heartache that always came when she thought

of him.

?Today is a new day,? she said to herself. ?This isn?t Guam, but

I can at least enjoy my stay here like I was on vacation. And to think

I didn?t have to spend a single yen to get here!?

She decided on bathing before breakfast. The sound of her

humming cheerfully carried down the hall. A sound which was

soon joined by that of splashing water.

Sarophan nodded to himself outside in the hall.

Easier than I believed... He thought with some satisfaction.

Just a subtle touch here, a gentle prod there, and she responds as

desired... Easy enough I suppose when her heart is already behind

the idea.

He walked down the hall to take his breakfast.

Midmorning found Ukyo, Nabiki, and Kuno on the small beach

by the lagoon. Kelebros stood at anchor in the middle of the lagoon.

Aerandir had decided to remove it from the pier for some reason.

Perhaps to discourage Nabiki from leaving with him tomorrow.

They each wore bathing suits provided by Sarophan?s household.

Nabiki had to admire Sarophan?s fashion sense. They wore nothing

less than the finest designer labels.

By the same token she had found with no small delight that

Sarophan had a satellite television and received reports from the

world?s major stock exchanges via Internet access on his home

computer. He had permitted her to catch up on her investment

portfolios by telephone under the gentle supervision of Yiannis. Her

fortunes were secure, and since she was no longer a hunted refugee,

she was feeling her old self again.

Kuno practiced his strikes in his dark blue swim trunks along the

low breaking waves. Ukyo lay out on a large beach towel sunning

herself in a white one piece bathing suit cut very high or very low

in just the right places. She seemed particularly happy this morning,

which made Nabiki feel much better about her. The last traces of

her affliction had evaporated away.

The three songbirds she had met yesterday had formed an unusual

bond with Nabiki. They serenaded her from a nearby fig tree, something

airy and bright by Claude Debussy. Nabiki found herself growing rather

fond of them.

She sat in the shade of the fig tree, listening to her songbirds, (it

wasn?t long before she thought of them as hers), and watching Kuno.

The swordsman moved gracefully through a half-speed form, feeling

out each move of his body and blade, making them one with his

mind. Kuno wasn?t very keen on much of anything, but as Nabiki

watched him she knew he was at least a genius when it came to

swordplay. His form complete, he executed it at full speed. The air

seemed to shimmer before the force of his glittering blade whistling

through it.

?Mmmm...? Ukyo murmured wistfully. A tropical drink moistened

her lips. ?I could do this forever.?

Nabiki smiled and looked at her. ?I?m inclined to agree with you.?

Ukyo looked up from her drink and turned onto her side. ?What do

you think about what Aerandir told us last night??

Nabiki pursed her lips in thought. ?It sounds crazy. But given the

light of recent events and the things we?ve seen, I guess I have to

believe him. Don?t ask me what this means for us.?

?That was my next question,? Ukyo chuckled. ?Can you guess

my other one??

?Do we stay here? I don?t really know.? Nabiki continued. ?I?d

like to go home. Kasumi and my dad are probably just as worried

after hearing from me as they were before. I just don?t want to involve

them in this. If those Russians are keeping an eye on the dojo I could

end up endangering them. At least while we?re here everyone is safe.?

?Everyone but Ranma and Akane,? Ukyo observed.

Kuno stopped practicing and leaned an ear towards the two ladies.

?Do you know where they are?? Nabiki asked her.

?Of course not,? Ukyo replied.

?Then we can?t do anything to help them,? Nabiki said. ?I don?t

like the idea, but that is just how it is. Sarophan probably has his

people looking for them right now as we speak.?

?Do you think he can protect them??

?He?ll do a better job of it than we can.?

?Speak for thyself Nabiki Tendo,? Kuno said. He sheathed his

sword and strode over to them.

?What was that, Kuno-baby?? Nabiki asked archly.

?My martial prowess shall prevail over the foe as it has in

encounters past. I have sworn a vow to repay the debt of my life

to the accursed Ranma Saotome, and even unto the likes of such

vermin I shall not shirk from duty. Any who wouldst harm the

slightest hair upon his head must first answer to my righteous

steel.? His face darkened. ?And for those who wish ill upon the

angelic beauty of Akane Tendo, I shall split the heavens with my

wrath.?

?Gee Kuno-baby, you only promised them twenty-fold against

what they did to me,? Nabiki teased.

Kuno affected a pained look for a moment.

?What?s this about a debt?? Ukyo asked him. She tried to think

back to that night in Ucchan?s -moments before they were catapulted

into this nightmare. Her memory of that night was sketchy at best.

Kuno took pains to direct all attention from Nabiki and instead

looked upon Ukyo laying on her beach towel. A fetching sight she

was.

?I swore to repay the accursed Saotome Ranma and the

misdirected Hibiki Ryoga for saving my life,? Kuno told her.

?Though Saotome is my rival in all things, I must not shirk a debt

of honor.?

?You mean when you were wounded in the war?? Ukyo asked.

Their eyes were drawn to the tattoos that embellished his

washboard stomach. Nabiki knew what she was looking for, and

could see the puckered scars from the bullet wound and of the

tubes that had been inserted into his infected abdominal cavity to

drain the virulent fluids out of his body. It was admirable work,

and as Ranma had once suspected, had been performed using

traditional means.

?Precisely,? Kuno said quietly. He could see their eyes upon his

stomach and tightened up unconsciously.

?So what?s your plan?? Ukyo asked him. It was just idle chatter

to while away the morning hours.

For Tatewaki Kuno, it was anything but trivial. Nabiki took one

look at his stern countenance and knew that he already had a plan.

It was also probably so half-baked and hopelessly optimistic that he

was doomed to failure from the start. Kuno just takes himself

far too seriously.

?I shall accompany the esteemed mariner Aerandir when he sails

in the morn. Together we shall find Saotome and the lovely Akane,?

he replied.

Nabiki knew this was coming, but found her jaw dropping in shock

nonetheless. Ukyo took the news with equal surprise. Kuno bid them

good morning and proceeded to walk down the beach towards the

rocky cliffs to practice away from such lovely distractions.

Ivan Tarchenko stepped through the door and into a spacious

room at the University of St. Petersburg College of Science filled

with computers, tables with piles of books and hardcopy stacked

upon them, and men scribbling on blackboards. Doctor Casimir

was in the corner of the room with Doctors Yevdokimov, Petrenko,

and Gulyaev. The four scientists were poring over a simulation on

a large computer display.

?So this is where you have been spending all your time?? He

said to them.

?Ah Vanya!? Casimir called to him happily. ?You are just in

time.?

?In time for what, Doctor??

Casimir laughed, and the other scientists laughed with him.

?We are close, Vanya. Very close!?

Tarchenko looked at the display. A toroidal representation of

magnetic flux spun around a grid pattern sphere which Tarchenko

immediately took to be the Earth. Red and violet lines of flux criss-

crossed the surface of the sphere, which at times took on substance

and displayed the land masses above and below sea level. The time

scale was set to one second equals 86,400 seconds, (or one day).

?You have corrected the model?? Tarchenko asked in surprise.

Perhaps they would not need the two Japanese after all.

?Yuri and Natalya have been tireless in their calculations,? Casimir

said in reply, gesturing to the middle-aged Doctors Petrenko and

Gulyaev respectively. The two gave modest smiles in response.

?And I?ve had a stroke of inspiration myself!?

?It works?? Tarchenko asked again.

?Not yet,? Casimir cautioned. ?But we have never been so close.

I was so blind not to see this before!?

Tarchenko was quite lost. ?What is it then??

?Gravity!? Casimir said triumphantly.

?Gravity?? Tarchenko repeated.

?Gravity,? Gulyaev affirmed.

?But we?ve already factored in the gravitic functions for the

Moon,? Tarchenko said desperately. His science background had

only ever been a cover for his work as Zhukerov and the others?

spy, and these people were leagues over his head.

?It wasn?t enough!? Casimir hooted. Tarchenko had never seen

the old man so animated before. ?Right now we?re assessing the

effects of all of the planets in the solar system, and even the Alpha

Centauri trinary system. An acquaintance of mine from the Jet

Propulsion Laboratory in California is going to send me a detailed

summary of the event data we?ve collected thus far; analyzed

against these new parameters. He?s even managed to get us

computer time for this!?

?In exchange for what?? Tarchenko asked. It was the KGB in

him coming out.

Casimir shrugged. ?Some high resolution radar relief mappings

of Mars, our polar cosmic ray survey raw data from last month

(they had a few glitches with their own observatories and they?re

desperately behind schedule), and the medical reports of all our brave

cosmonauts upstairs in Mir. You know how desperate the Americans

are for long duration space-flight data.?

?Those were privileged data belonging to the Russian Federation,

Doctor!? Tarchenko cried. ?You can?t just give them away to the

Americans!?

?Hush Vanya, your voice is carrying,? Casimir admonished.

?And remember we are scientists first. Leave politics to the

apparatchiks...If I must, how do they say over there in America,

?do a little horse trading?; then I will gladly part with a few nags that

I may acquire a fine stallion!?

?But Doctor!? Tarchenko hissed. ?It wasn?t yours to give!?

?I?m surprised at you, Vanya. I would have thought that such a

great leap forward would have made you happy.?

?I am happy, Doctor. But not if you had to give away our

painfully and costly collected scientific data to get it. We were nine

years ahead of them with the Mars data alone! And they?ll never

put that Freedom of theirs into orbit. They would still be begging

us to ride Mir for years to come to collect their own long term

space-flight data if you hadn?t given it to them. We need the hard

currency such favors garner.?

Casimir shook his head. ?What?s done is done, and cannot be

undone.? He directed his attention back to the display. ?So beautiful.

I can almost see the pattern unfolding.?

Tarchenko found himself watching as well. He was far enough

into this role to at least appreciate what he was looking at.

?So that?s it then,? he said at length.

?What was that, Vanya?? The elderly scientist asked absently.

?Gravity. That was what was missing.?

?Oh there?s more to it than that,? Casimir remarked off-handedly.

?But this puts us so close now. So close. I wonder if that was what

Balthazar did to keep their model on track so much better than ours??

?Why don?t you ask him?? Tarchenko said suddenly. It was a

lapse of conduct, but the last several minutes had been very trying

for him. He wished immediately that he could take it back.

?How was that again, Vanya??

Tarchenko realized that he may as well go all the way.

?You are planning to attend Prince Rainier?s Charity Ball. I am

aware that Professor McFogg also attends the event every year.

You could ask him then.?

?And how would you know this?? Casimir said tiredly. He didn?t

feel like playing such games when there was so much yet to be done.

?I am your Operations Director, am I not?? Tarchenko replied.

?It is my job to know such things.? It was a satisfactory recovery,

and he felt pleased with himself.

?Of course, Vanya.? Casimir chuckled. ?How very silly of me.?

He let the matter drop and returned to the simulation.

?You said there was more to the model than the gravitic

corrections,? Tarchenko fished. ?What did you mean by that??

?If I had those Wayfinders with me I could probably tell you,?

Casimir answered. ?Just a few hours to talk with them. It could

mean so much. I do hope Balthazar brings them to Monaco.?

Tarchenko?s brow furrowed in thought.

As do I, Doctor. As do I.

Chapter Two

Aerandir was a little surprised to see Nabiki treading water a few

meters from Kelebros. He leaned over the gunwale and smiled for

her. She waved a hand jauntily at him, but the look of concern on

her face belied any joviality she tried to convey.

?Ahoy Nabiki!? He called to her. ?For just a moment I thought

you were a mermaid who wished to chat with me.? He looked down

at her, a vision of exotic beauty in a bright red bikini that glowed

beneath the clear green waters of the lagoon. ?But then perhaps I

am not far from the mark!? He laughed.

?May I come aboard?? Nabiki asked.

?Of course!? Aerandir replied. ?Swim to the fantail and I shall

help you aboard.?

Nabiki kicked out a few lazy side strokes and bobbed just aft of

the jackstaff. Aerandir?s personal ensign snapped with the breeze

above her. She could make out the silvery letters of ?Kelebros? on

the fantail, along with more of that attractive alien script.

Aerandir leaned over the rail and dropped a short Jacob?s ladder

for her over the side. Nabiki pulled herself up, with Aerandir taking

her hand and helping her over the rail. She shook out some of the

water from her bob of mahogany colored hair as Aerandir went

below to fetch a towel for her.

He came back up on deck with the towel, and Nabiki dried herself

off.

?Welcome aboard, Nabiki,? he said kindly to her. ?Now what

seems to be the trouble??

?Is it that obvious?? Nabiki lamented. She hated the idea of

being so easy to read.

?I cannot imagine why else you would swim so far from the beach

just to chat with me. Especially as I would be joining you for lunch in

just a short hour.?

?I suppose you do have a point,? she admitted.

?Would you like something to drink while we talk?? He offered.

Nabiki took a seat on a deck chair. ?Anything without alcohol or

too fattening, please.?

Aerandir smiled at her and went below again. Nabiki had to admit

that eight-thousand years old or not, he was looking very handsome.

And he did have the warmest smile.

He returned with two tall glasses of iced tea. He set one before

her and sipped idly at the other one.

?You were kidding about the mermaid, right?? She thought to

ask him.

?Of course not!? Aerandir replied. ?I speak with mermaids all

the time.?

She had to laugh in spite of the absurdity of it. Then again,

knowing a little more about Aerandir, he was probably quite serious.

?I have delayed you long enough I think,? he observed dryly.

?Now what is it you wish to speak to of??

?It?s about Tatewaki Kuno,? she told him.

?The Blue Thunder? Do go on.?

She had the feeling that he was already certain of where she was

going with this, but played on. ?He plans to leave with you tomorrow.?

?Quite so,? Aerandir agreed. ?I cautioned him against it, but he

was rather adamant. As none of you are prisoners on this island, I

could not refuse such a request.?

?Did he tell you why he wanted to go??

?He did not,? Aerandir replied. ?Nor did I feel it was my business

to inquire.?

Nabiki thought as much. ?He?s looking for Ranma and my little

sister. He swore this stupid oath to repay Ranma for saving his life,

and he?s just dumb enough to travel to the ends of the Earth to do it!

He can?t possibly survive on his own out there, he?s just too dimwitted

for something like this!?

?Why Nabiki!? Aerandir said in an amused tone of voice. ?I had

no idea you felt so strongly for the Blue Thunder!?

Nabiki?s heart just about stopped.

?W-Whatever gave you that idea?? She stammered. She flinched

on the inside for losing her cool so easily. What was it about

Aerandir that cut to the bone so effortlessly?

?While I may not be as proficient as my uncle, I can see certain

things within people that mere vision cannot perceive,? Aerandir

replied softly. ?I see that you have spent a very long time in the Blue

Thunder?s company.?

?I?ve practically taken care of him his whole life,? Nabiki said

without thinking. Where is my guard today? Another hidden talent

of Aerandir?s? Still, it is good to get this out in the open... ?He

was so hopeless when I first met him in elementary school, I kind

of felt sorry for him... I guess I?ve been feeling sorry for him all our

lives.? Fourteen years anyway.

?Surely the protector of Nabiki Tendo and Ukyo Kuonji could

not be so helpless?? Aerandir said in a tone that was very faintly

mocking.

?Oh sure. If you give him someone to hack up with his sword,

he?s just fine. Any other time and he?s totally hopeless. He has no

idea what?s going on outside of his little samurai fantasy world!?

She stopped speaking and just sat there looking at the beads of

condensation trickle down the glass of iced tea in her lap. Mostly

because Aerandir?s marvelous sea colored eyes were too intense to

bear in her present state of mind. She couldn?t believe she was

getting so worked up over Tatewaki Kuno.

Aerandir chuckled. ?Correct me if I am mistaken, but I believe

you wish to join me tomorrow when Kelebros sets sail??

Nabiki looked up at him gratefully. At least she didn?t have to

fumble around for some way to justify going with him this way.

No reasons to let anything else slip in front of him either.

?If I can?t talk him out of going, then yes, I wish to join you

tomorrow.? Her eyes flashed with the glint of sunlight off the

waters. ?If I may,? she added.

Aerandir raised his glass to her. ?Kelebros could do no better

than to have such a fine and fair lady as yourself aboard! You are

always welcome aboard my ship, Nabiki.?

Nabiki clinked her glass against his.

?Thank you, Aerandir.?

Aerandir bowed. ?I am your servant, Nabiki,? he said gallantly.

He checked his pocket watch, a veritable antique in 22 karat gold

with a Swiss 12 jeweled movement that dangled from a gold chain.

?We should also be heading for the shore. Lunch will be served

shortly, and I know my uncle is a stickler for punctuality. And you

still need to change out of your bathing suit.?

Nabiki looked around for his launch. There was none that she

could see. Surely he didn?t intend to dock the ship with the pier

again?

?It?s quite a swim,? she remarked.

?Who said anything about a swim?? Aerandir said to her. ?You

wouldn?t be able to swim back and still be on time.?

?What are you saying then??

Aerandir opened his arms to her. ?If I may, I shall carry you.?

?Excuse me??

?Trust in me Nabiki, I shall not lead you astray.?

?Carry me across the water??

?Yes. It?s not something I make a habit of, but it is good for

me to stay in practice. Come please.?

She gingerly stepped up to him and he cradled her up into his

strong arms. She set an arm around his neck and shoulder and waited.

He stepped up to the rail and jumped over.

At first she cried in surprise, certain he intended to plunge into

the water. They never got that far. He skated atop the surface of the

waves and began singing a bawdy drinking song in Middle Italian.

Nabiki looked down with wide eyes and saw that his feet just

avoided the surface of the water.

?That?s some trick,? she remarked to him. ?Could I do that in

say, eight-thousand years??

?You could be doing this in just a few years if you were willing

to practice with me,? he chuckled. ?I sense a great well of power

within you. It makes me glad to know that my cousins are coming

of age.?

?You mean more people like you will be coming along??

?Not like me. But yes, more and more of you are expressing

your potentials than ever before. From what I?ve heard of your

sister?s husband, he seems to be one of the stronger ones.?

?Fianc鬔 Nabiki corrected. ?So when will this sort of thing

become common place??

?Oh not for a few more centuries at the very least!? Aerandir

laughed. ?But I?m a very patient man!?

?I can imagine,? Nabiki sighed, trying to imagine what it would

be like to live for thousands of years. The concept defied any real

grasp she could manage. She was only twenty years old. Aerandir

was four hundred times her age.

Aerandir scooted across the sand and set Nabiki gently on her

feet.

?There we are,? he said briskly. ?Now that was exhilarating,

wasn?t it??

She nodded and looked out across the lagoon. They had crossed

two hundred yards of water in under a minute. They didn?t have a

drop of water on them.

?You could say that.?

Tatewaki Kuno was pondering his good-byes to Ukyo and

Nabiki when he heard a light rapping on the door. He got up from

his kneeling position on the floor and started across the room.

The rapping sound returned a little more urgently.

He opened the door to see Nabiki looking up at him.

?Good evening Nabiki Tendo,? he offered her politely.

?Let?s cut to the chase Kuno-baby,? Nabiki replied, and pushed

past him.

?You wish to speak in private??

Nabiki had by this time sat down on the foot of the bed. ?You

could say that.?

?I am listening, Nabiki Tendo.? Kuno stood across from her.

?I?m here to ask you to stay,? Nabiki said to him.

?To stay?? Kuno asked. ?For what purpose do you ask this of

me??

?I know this sounds a little awkward, but I?m concerned for you.?

Kuno was silent. He had never expected something like this to be

said by Nabiki Tendo. (And certainly not in regards to himself.)

?Concerned?? He asked.

?Yes, concerned. For you.? She said with growing impatience.

?I think you are making a big mistake in chasing after Ranma, and

I am trying to keep you from that mistake.?

?I realize that should fate turn against me, and I be slain in the

course of fulfilling my oath to Saotome, that you would stand to

lose considerably in a financial sense.?

It must have been a Tendo family trait, because a characteristic

Akane snapping sound came from inside Nabiki?s head.

?I don?t give a damn about your money!? She yelled at him.

Kuno stepped back a bit both in surprise at her ferocity and her

foreswearance of wealth.

?Oh, I should have known better than to try and reason with

you,? she went on in a slightly less intense tone of voice. ?Any more

than thinking that you had an ounce of common sense in your head!?

She jumped to her feet and thundered past him. She slammed

the door as hard as she could for effect. Kuno stood there watching

her go with a confused look on his face.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I do believe Nabiki Tendo is

concerned for me...

Later that evening Nabiki found Ukyo listening to music in the

drawing room. She had cooled off from her bungled encounter

with Kuno, and her next course of action was obvious to her. Her

songbirds were there, and to see them serenading Ukyo made her

jealous for an instant before realizing to herself how silly that was.

Ukyo looked up and waved to her.

?Hey Nabiki,? she greeted.

?Hi Ukyo. You look pretty content.?

?Oh I am,? she replied. ?I haven?t felt this much at ease with

myself in a long time. It?s funny too, because I had a dream about

Ranma last night.?

?Oh??

?Yeah. Usually they leave me a wreck in the morning. Not

today. I know that he?ll always love Akane, and somehow it just

doesn?t bother me like it used to.?

Nabiki sat down next to her. ?Does this mean you?re getting

over him??

?I still love him,? Ukyo replied. ?I?ll always love him. Maybe

this means that I?m ready to move on with my life.? She chuckled

softly. ?I mean why should I keep beating myself up over it??

?No regrets??

?One,? Ukyo admitted. ?I regret not coming to Nerima sooner.

I think if I had come before he started to fall in love with Akane,

he would have fallen for me instead.? She threw back her mane

of dark brown hair. ?But you know what? That really doesn?t

bother me anymore either. It?s like this little voice in my head is

telling me not to worry; that no matter who gets whom, everything

will work out for the best.?

Nabiki nodded. She and Ukyo had become rather close in the

past few months, but this was the first time they had ever discussed

her love for Ranma in this way.

?I?m glad to see you feeling better,? Nabiki said softly. ?Don?t

let this get out, but I really care about you.?

?Your secret is safe with me,? she whispered with a grin. She

then threw her arms around Nabiki and they hugged warmly.

Nabiki started to get a little choked up. Affection didn?t come

easy to her, and she had never been this way with her sisters. She

loved Kasumi dearly, but with the death of their mother her older

sister had become so distant from them. Akane would always be the

baby of the family, and Nabiki admitted that perhaps a little jealousy

of her had kept them from ever being close. It was strange and also

wonderful that she could be so close to Ukyo.

She sniffled once, fighting back a tear or two. She was on too

much of an emotional roller-coaster tonight. Ukyo gave her a squeeze

and released their embrace. As the okonomiyaki chef drew back

from her, Nabiki put on her best smile and tried to muster the

courage to say what she had come here for.

?I?m leaving with Aerandir in the morning,? she said quickly.

?I kinda guessed that,? Ukyo replied. ?Take good care of him.?

?Aerandir can take care of himself,? Nabiki observed.

?That?s not who I was talking about,? Ukyo grinned. ?I was

talking about Kuno.?

?Ukyo!? Nabiki cried. ?I thought I made things pretty clear to

you about how I felt about him.? Pompous posturing idiot!

?Relax Nabiki,? Ukyo giggled, thoroughly amused with the

reaction she had received from her remark. ?I?m not saying that

you?re in love with him or anything, but I think you feel for him

more than you care to admit.?

?I?m not going to answer that,? Nabiki said dryly. ?But I am

going to ask you to come with us.?

?I can?t,? Ukyo said softly.

?Why not??

?I just can?t,? she replied. ?I need some time to think things

through. It?s why I wanted to go on vacation in the first place.

As long as I?m here, I?m going to take advantage of it. Besides,

it?s not like you?ll never see me again. We?ll all be back in Japan

in a few weeks.?

Nabiki could see that Ukyo was quite sincere in her desire to stay

behind. She decided that perhaps the okonomiyaki chef she had

come to know as her dearest friend could use a little time alone.

She would miss Ukyo, but she was right; they would all be together

again in a few weeks. That wasn?t such a long time to wait.

?I?m going to miss you Ukyo,? Nabiki said to her. ?But if it?s

for the best than I won?t argue with you.?

?Nabiki not haggle? I?m surprised you would let me off so easy.

I was expecting a fight.? Ukyo teased.

?Do you want one?? Nabiki replied with a wicked grin.

?No, but I?ll settle for a hug instead.?

?Deal.?

Nabiki reached out and took Ukyo into another warm embrace.

She felt the warmth of a tear on her cheek, and realized that it

belonged to Ukyo. The songbirds trilled softly for them in the

darkness.

The sky was just turning grey in the east. The wind was soft

and cool, promising a gentle summer day. Tatewaki Kuno brought

the inflatable boat alongside Kelebros. Yiannis took over the tiller

and kept the boat steady as Aerandir sent the Jacob?s ladder over

the side. Kuno pulled himself up the ladder, carrying only his sword.

?You travel lightly Blue Thunder,? Aerandir remarked. ?Admirable

for a sailor, but not always wise.?

?It would not be proper to take such things as were lent to me

by thine uncle,? Kuno replied.

?Well I don?t think he was actually lending them to you,?

Aerandir explained. ?But it?s no matter. I have such clothes as to

suit the both of us. And my larder is stocked. Are you ready to

sail with me??

?Verily?tis a fine day to feel the wind at our backs and to hear

the snapping of the canvas.?

?Well spoken, Blue Thunder. If you would man the helm please,

whilst I make preparations to get underway.?

Kuno bowed crisply and strode to the pilot house. Aerandir waved

to Yiannis, who waved back and turned the boat away from Kelebros

and started back towards the beach. That done, he turned to the

mainmast and narrowed his eyes slightly.

?Weigh anchor,? he said in a loud voice.

A bosun?s whistle shrilled from nowhere and the ensign was run

down the jackstaff and appeared running up the mainmast. The

anchor was hauled aboard with the crisp clanking of the wildcat.

Another whistle shrilled.

?Very well,? Aerandir replied. ?You may carry on. Smartly

mind you, please. We have an audience.?

Sails billowed open from reef stays. The wind obliged and blew

up to stern, filling the bellies of the canvas with loud cracks.

Invisible hands took turns on the sheets and halyards and

trimmed the rigging smartly. Kelebros began to make headway.

?Steady on the helm, Blue Thunder,? Aerandir advised. ?Let?s

see what the wind is doing.?

Kuno kept the rudder steady as Kelebros made for the stony

breakwater. The ship heeled over slightly to starboard, but it was

nothing of much concern. The chop of the seas rolling in through

the channel glittered like quicksilver upon the grey wavetops in the

predawn light.

Ukyo watched Kelebros begin its departure from the lagoon.

She could clearly see a dozen or so sailors clambering around on

deck or up in the rigging. They wore striped shirts and white trousers

and straw hats with yellow ribbon tails. The wind carried the

sounds of men singing as they hauled at the lines.

When the sun broke over the horizon they seemed to fade

away from sight. Like a mirage. She thought she must have been

seeing things, but the last sailor to fade from sight, high up at the

top of the mainmast, blew her a kiss and waved goodbye.

Sarophan snorted next to her.

?Romantics,? he said quietly.

?Pardon me?? Ukyo asked him.

?Romantic fools,? Sarophan said. ?They?ve been dead hundreds

of years and still they flock to my nephew?s banner to sail with him.

Some come all the way from Fiddler?s Green.?

?Ease your rudder two points to port,? Aerandir advised. ?Steady

on course 2-4-5.? He turned his face up to his phantom crew. ?Mind

the skylarking, lads. Plenty of time for that later.?

Kuno followed the rudder order. The spar for the mainsail shifted

slightly before him. He checked his compass and held the tiller steady

on course at 2-4-5.

?Well done.?

Kuno beamed at the compliment.

Kelebros darted past the breakwater and into the open Aegean.

Aerandir tutored him on the handling of the ship, pleased to find

such an attentive and eager pupil. After awhile he relieved Kuno

at the helm and mentioned that he should go below to have breakfast.

The swordsman felt quite pleased with himself, and hummed

tunelessly as he went below.

He looked about the small galley and dining area scarcely large

enough for four people. There was an arrangement of fruits in a

hanging bag that drifted back and forth slowly with the rocking of

the ship in the waves. Freshly baked bread lay in a basket set in a

recess in the middle of the table to keep it from rolling off. He

chose a mango and began to eat.

On the small stove was a kettle of water put on to boil. The kettle

was held on the griddle-like burner by two metal rods that fit in holes

along the raised edge of the stove. One could shift the rods around to

accommodate larger sized pots, or add more rods and safely cook

with more than one in rough seas.

The water wasn?t yet hot, and so he went forward into Aerandir?s

stateroom for a change of wardrobe. He felt glad to be away from

Ukyo and Nabiki in a way. At least he didn?t have to see to their

safety anymore. He could focus himself upon the task at hand;

repaying his debt as swiftly as possible that he might return home

to Japan.

Of course if it should be by way of the fine vessel he now sailed

upon, then so much the better. Aerandir was an excellent teacher of

seamanship, something Kuno had always wanted to learn more of.

He was after all a skilled mariner, but his first passion was always

swordplay, even at the expense of other disciplines. This was his

opportunity to hone his skills and sharpen his instincts. Let them

try laughing when next I shouldst sail away with my Pig-Tailed

Goddess!

He stepped through the door into Aerandir?s stateroom. It was

dimly lit with the drapes pulled over the portholes, and the sun was

yet still struggling on the horizon. He reached for a light switch and

flicked it on.

Nabiki Tendo lay in Aerandir?s bed fast asleep. She was wearing

the smallest nightgown that Tatewaki Kuno had ever seen. Her long

coltish legs were bare, the comforter and sheets thrown carelessly

aside her. His eye caught a teasing glimpse of her black lace panties.

Her bosom swelled in the most inspiring way as she drew slow and

even breaths in her sleep.

Sweat beaded on his forehead and heat began to radiate about

his face. As crafty and dangerous as he knew her to be, in repose

she looked so innocent and, well, beautiful. Angelic, the more he

thought about it. He continued to watch her sleep, fascinated with

her loveliness. Even a little unnerved at her transformation.

Finally it became too much for him and he threw up his hands

to the heavens.

Oh cruel fate! He lamented in his mind. Why hast thou

passed this cup to me? Are not my affections divided enough?

He reigned himself in, asserting his self control with rare success.

He was strong. What he felt were primal urges, to be denied for

the higher finer beauty of True Love. Love for the Pig-Tailed Girl,

love for Akane Tendo. He couldn?t possibly feel love for Nabiki.

Respect certainly. Even admiration for her strength, resolve,

and wit. But anything more? Absurd!

?Absurd,? he said aloud, and felt better immediately.

There was something very wrong here, but he had yet to

determine what it was.

He tried to ignore her as he searched the wardrobes for something

suitable.

?Mmmmmm... Hello Kuno-baby,? Nabiki purred luxuriantly

behind him.

He turned around to see her curled suggestively around a large

pillow. Her half-open eyes seemed focused on him. Her mouth was

pursed into a wicked grin.

The badly worn clutch of his mind finally engaged.

?Thou art supposed to be upon the island, woman!? Kuno cried

in a loud voice.

Nabiki was unfazed by his outburst. All of the old cool in her was

back with a vengeance. She yawned casually.

?Now whatever gave you that idea, Kuno-baby??

Kuno was livid.

?Madness!? he bellowed incoherently. He had no idea where he

was going, and rambled on for several minutes, punctuating his

oratory with various fragments like ?Insanity?Foolishness,? and

Nabiki?s personal favorite?Impetuous woman!?

She let him go on like that until he seemed to be reaching some

sort of crescendo. (Although he was making no more sense now

than when he had started his tirade.) Then she pulled the rug out

from under him.

?Give it up Kuno-baby,? she told him softly. ?You?re stuck

with me, and it?s for your own good.?

Kuno stopped in mid-finale. The hard look in her eyes told him

volumes. They told him that she wasn?t relenting, and that he was

dashing himself against a wall of iron. His hands sunk down to his

sides and for a moment he seemed like a deflated balloon. It was

almost pathetic.

He sunk down along the bulkhead, sapped of energy. Defeated

as usual by Nabiki Tendo. He wondered what sort of dark powers

she exercised over him to do this with such annoying regularity.

?Might I ask why thou hast chosen to visit this upon me?? He

said wearily from the carpeted deck.

?I told you last night Kuno-baby,? she replied with a slight smile

from over the pillow. ?I?m concerned about you.?

Kuno slumped down upon the carpet in total defeat.

Nabiki came up on deck wearing a halter and shorts. She was

barefoot and smiling quite contentedly. Aerandir returned her smile.

?Well I think he took your presence rather well, don?t you think??

He asked with a wink. It was clear he could hear Kuno?s tirade up

on deck.

?You?re sure we?re too far away to turn back??

Aerandir chuckled. ?Distance has nothing to do with it. I wouldn?t

turn back. You asked to join me on this voyage and I agreed. What

the Blue Thunder may wish of you has nothing to do with our

agreement.?

?Thanks for letting me stay the night onboard,? she said warmly.

?And for keeping him away until we were out to sea.?

?I am your servant, Nabiki,? Aerandir laughed. ?It was no trouble.?

He looked across the horizon to the sight of distant ships. A cloud

bank loomed far to port -a squall blown up from the warm Egyptian

air in the south. He reached out and caressed the storm; assessing

its intentions, gauging the strength that it hid within its depths.

?Truth be known Nabiki, I would have dearly wished to have

seen him from a closer vantage point. Is he always so passionate??

Nabiki blushed a little at his remark. ?If you mean excitable,

then yes.?

?I sensed as much in him. You would do well to take care

with him.?

?Oh, I can handle him,? she replied without thinking.

The sweet sound of music filled the air. Nabiki?s trio of songbirds

settled along the rail and chirped excitedly for her. She cried out in

delight and gathered them up onto her arm. They sang a bright aria

in response.

?Aerandir, look!? She cried.

Aerandir offered her a thin smile.

?I see my uncle?s songbirds have taken a fancy to you.?

?He won?t mind will he?? She was clearly taken with them as

well.

Aerandir looked away, pretending to be on the lookout for

shipping traffic. A part of him tugged at the squall, and the winds

shifted to bring it closer. Nabiki hadn?t noticed the darkening

horizon off their port beam. It was still very distant.

?No, I don?t think he will mind their absence.?

Nabiki let the three birds settle on the brass rail that surrounded

the pilot house. They began a slow melody, Handel?s ?Wassermusik,?

the first suite in F. ?So where are we bound??

?Monaco,? Aerandir replied. His jovial spirit now seemed quite

subdued.

?Any particular reason? Not that I mind a trip to the south of

France!?

?I have a certain obligation to meet in Monaco. By a happy

coincidence we will likely find your sister and her fianc頴here as

well.?

?Akane and Ranma? That?s great!? She was dying to see some

family again. ?When do you think we can get there??

?Perhaps three days,? Aerandir replied. ?I don?t think there is

any urgency to require the expenditure of certain Talents to get there

sooner.?

?Just how far can you travel in a night?? She understood now

that he had used some of his enigmatic powers to take them 400

miles in twelve hours in order to reach Kalimnos.

?It depends,? he said evenly. ?It depends on how badly I need

to be somewhere, how much strength I have saved up for the task,

and how much energy I can draw on from the sea. I imagine that

I could get us there by tonight, if it was important enough.?

He looked at her. His sea-colored eyes flashed with distant

lightning.

?But I do not feel that is the case. In any event the process

can be very draining, and I might need to save my strength for

other concerns. We shall have to be patient.?

Nabiki walked over to stand close to him.

?What?s the matter, Aerandir? Something is bothering you.?

?Yes, Nabiki... You are a formidable woman indeed... Something

is bothering me, and I suppose that it would only be fair that I share

it with you.?

There was anger veiled in his words. It didn?t seem to be directed

at her, but she became wary of him. She wasn?t sure she wanted to

hear it anymore.

?My uncle has committed himself to a terrible course of action,?

he began. ?I have sworn to him that I would not interfere. That he

is my family and I would not betray him. Yet he sends those,? he

pointed to the songbirds, which chirped animatedly. ?Because he

does not trust me!?

He raised his fist to the sky and a great bolt of lightning crackled

across the mainmast. The thunderclap report deafened Nabiki, who

huddled in the safety of Aerandir?s loose fitting tunic. The storm

was building to port, rushing closer.

?Has this obsession so twisted your heart that you would think

so low of your own family!?? He bellowed to the storm.

He brought up his hands again and waved them out to his sides.

A great waterspout spiraled up from the sea and began rampaging

in circles around the ship. Seaspray and wind lashed at Nabiki,

who now ducked down along the pilothouse bulkhead for shelter.

Aerandir?s hands crackled with St. Elmo?s fire, and more lightning

crackled in response overhead.

?Aerandir, stop it!? She cried.

Rain began to fall, heavy and cold. Kelebros pitched roughly

against the blackening seas. The swells were swiftly becoming thirty

foot high mountains of icy water. Lines came free from their stays

and whipped mercilessly around the deck.

Aerandir had run forward to stand on the prow, and was

shouting at the sky in his native tongue.

?Aerandir!? Nabiki shouted.

He spun around and whipped up another waterspout with his

raised hands. He sent it spiraling in the opposite direction of the

first, disrupting the waves even more as they crashed against the

hull. A wave broke over the rail and nearly crushed Nabiki against

the bulkhead. She spat out a mouthful of briny water and coughed

up what little she had inhaled.

Kuno stormed up on deck.

?What manner of storm is this?!? He cried.

?It?s Aerandir!? Nabiki yelled back to him, still coughing water.

?He?s gone crazy!?

Kuno fought to keep his balance on the water logged and

pitching deck. He reached Nabiki, who grabbed onto to him for

purchase against the swells. He put an arm around her and held

her fast even as he looped his other arm around the rail.

?There was no hint of madness in him in the morn,? he

remarked to her over the roar of the wind and the furious patter

of rain.

?What do you call this?? She shot back from underneath his arm.

He surveyed the blackened skies and the icy swells that raged

around them. Lightning rent the heavens again with its deafening

report. The rain fell in sheets that soaked the two of them to the

bone.

?Perhaps I must speak to him lest we founder.?

?You think so?!? Nabiki returned with all the sarcasm she

could muster under the circumstances. Even in a crisis he?s so

thick-headed!

?Get thee below, Nabiki Tendo. Thou art ill prepared to face

this squall.?

?I?m staying right here. There?s no way I?m going to try and

make it to the ladder in the middle of this!?

?Very well then,? Kuno said to her. ?I ask that you hold fast

to the rail and preserve thy most precious life. I shall attempt to

parley with Master Aerandir.?

He stood up and walked calmly towards the prow. Now that he

understood what was going on, he turned his attentions to proper

balance and footwork upon the slippery wooden deck. He moved

gracefully over the deck watching the waves as they came in,

feeling the subtle shifts in the ship as it wallowed over the swells,

and bracing against the gusts of wind.

?Master Aerandir,? he called in a calm voice.

Aerandir didn?t acknowledge him. He was busy raising up a

third waterspout.

Kuno repeated himself, adding?thou art frightening the lady.?

Aerandir turned around. He saw Nabiki soaking wet and huddled

in the open pilothouse. She was trying to stay calm, but he could see

into her heart and knew she was terrified.

The waterspouts flew apart around the ship. The winds died

down and the seas with them. The rain faded to a gentle sprinkle.

Without his direction and efforts, the storm that should never have

been now ceased to exist.

He leaned back against the gunwale and sighed heavily. A wisp

of St. Elmo?s fire flickered across his hands and sparkled into

nothingness.

?I suppose I did overdo it a bit,? he observed. ?But I wanted

my uncle to know exactly what I thought of his gift.?

He sighed again.

?It felt good to get that all out of my system. My apologies if I

frightened you.?

Nabiki stood up. She tried wringing out her now sopping wet

halter top. Her confusion with him gave her a wary countenance.

He seemed very kind and gentle, yet this rampant display of violent

power was stark contrast to the man she thought she knew.

I should kick myself for thinking I could figure him out in

just a few days. He?s eight thousand years old for gosh sakes. I

probably haven?t seen a fraction of his personality. Or his

power.

Aerandir walked aft to the pilothouse. He bowed his head for

her.

?Are you injured??

Nabiki brushed at some of the water that beaded on her from

the drizzling rain.

?Not really. A little bruised maybe, but nothing serious.?

?I offer my apologies to you. I am used to traveling alone,

where such outbursts harm no one. They are quite rare I assure

you, but when I do let go it isn?t gentle.?

She tried to smile for him. ?Just warn me next time, okay.?

?I shall endeavor not to have a next time around you,? he

replied. ?Perhaps you should get below and change out of your

wet clothes.?

Nabiki nodded agreement. Without a word she went below.

Aerandir brushed at his clothes, which dried instantly in wisps

of steam. He looked at Kuno, who now had the helm and kept

Kelebros on course. He knew it wasn?t necessary, as the ship

looked after itself, but admired Kuno?s instincts. Perhaps in a

few years he would be worthy sailor.

?I am very sorry Blue Thunder. I never meant for any harm

to befall her.?

Kuno nodded in acceptance of Aerandir?s apology. ?While she

may have the frailties of her gender, she is of strong character and

spirit. I do not believe she will hold this long against thee.?

?For that I am glad. I would be sorely wounded to lose the

friendship of Nabiki Tendo.?

Chapter Three

Ivan Tarchenko walked down the wide boulevards of the city to

his usual Paris haunt, a sidewalk cafe on the Left Bank of the Seine.

He ordered the usual, and was rewarded with the appearance of his

contact some minutes later. The man sat down across from him.

? You are given final authorization to proceed with your action, ?

the man said to him in French.

? But can I count on your support? ? Tarchenko asked with a

sharp edge to his question.

? We are prepared to accept custody, but be advised that if any

formal proceedings should occur as a result we will not hesitate to

take the appropriate steps to keep ourselves clean. ?

Tarchenko nodded at the old give-and-take. ? I understand,

but let me offer you this in return: your ardent cooperation with

me will be looked upon favorably by the men I represent. I am

well aware that the Paris Section is in decline with the lack of

funding in recent times. ? He left the rest open to speculation.

The man nodded with a grunt. He knew which side his bread

was buttered on.

? We shall make every effort to support you in Paris. ?

? You have no idea of the confidence that inspires in me, ?

Tarchenko replied.

The man stood up from his chair and lost himself in the crowds

of commuters spilling up from the Metro station below the street.

Tarchenko reached into his coat pocket and retrieved a cellular

phone. He stabbed a quick encryption key code into the unit and

then dialed. After some minutes he was rewarded with the

polyphonic tones of the unit on the receiving end entering the

correct return code.

? Your orders? ? Crackled Fyodor?s voice.

? You may proceed as planned, ? Tarchenko told him crisply.

? Understood. ?

The line clicked dead. Tarchenko put the phone back into his

pocket and finished his coffee.

Nabiki couldn?t find it in her heart to stay upset with Aerandir

for very long. They had passed the day at sea in good spirits. Kuno

had gotten over her presence on board, seeing as how Aerandir

had no intentions of returning her to the island.

Her songbirds had fled below when Aerandir began his tantrum.

Now they perched upon the rail of the pilothouse and serenaded

her with a little Mendelssohn. Even Aerandir didn?t seem to mind

them as much, especially as how they made her so happy to have

them around.

This afternoon found Kuno and Aerandir standing on deck

facing off with swords. It hadn?t taken long for the subject of

fencing to come up between them. Nabiki watched them size

the other up while sipping iced tea.

Kuno of course had his katana, which was a beautiful family

sword. She didn?t doubt its edge one bit, she?d seen its handiwork

first hand. Aerandir?s sword however was far more exotic. The

metal looked like it had been woven from several different pieces

and hammered flat into a wavy blade similar to a flamberg鮠

Delicate engravings were etched on the blade in that gorgeous

ancient script, the hilt was ivory and gold and set with emeralds

and aquamarine and lapis lazuli.

?Don?t kill yourselves,? she called to them as it looked like

they were ready to fight.

?I have faith in the Blue Thunder?s skill,? Aerandir replied.

They came at each other with lightning swift strokes. Their

blades flashed in the sunlight but never once connected with

each other nor the flesh of their opponents. After the first

engagement they backed off and assessed the other?s style.

?You fight rather well, Blue Thunder. However I know you?re

holding back from me.?

?I may say the same of thee,? Kuno replied. ?First we must

determine the rhythm of our opponent that we may strike outside

of it.?

?I find it odd that a man who holds the tenets of Musashi close

to his heart only wields one sword.?

?It is the way of the Kuno family.?

?I understand.?

They came at each other again. Nabiki couldn?t even see their

blades moving, just a flashing blur of glinting steel. It ended as

abruptly as it began, with Aerandir stepping back and bowing his

head.

?Well done,? he said in compliment for Kuno?s skill.

Kuno bowed in respectful acknowledgment of the compliment.

?Did I miss something?? Nabiki asked them. ?I never even

heard your swords touch each other.?

?And mar these fine blades needlessly?? Aerandir replied.

?It is not necessary for two swordsmen of sufficient caliber to

resort to such coarse and vulgar means of sparring,? Kuno supplied.

Aerandir nodded his head in agreement.

?So you just wave your swords at each other until someone

decides that he?s outmatched??

?There is more involved, but that is the gist of the argument,?

Aerandir said to her. ?It was plainly obvious that the Blue Thunder

has more speed than I. He also practices rigorously every day. I

haven?t picked up my sword to spar or otherwise for decades.

I think he went easy on me or he would have defeated me even

sooner.?

?If I may be so bold as to point out that thy heavier blade is

not as well matched against my lighter swifter blade for such

unarmored combat,? Kuno said, pointing to Aerandir?s sword

with his own.

?Very true, but you are being too modest Blue Thunder.

Yours was clearly the superior skill.?

Nabiki had to snicker at that remark. Kuno modest?

?Allow me to offer you this in appreciation of a master

swordsman if I may,? Aerandir continued. He squinted his eyes

for just a moment. The sword he held in his hand seemed to

burst into a silvery flame.

Kuno?s eyes widened in wonder. Nabiki had to shade her eyes

with her hand to cut down on the glare from the sword.

?I can teach you this,? Aerandir told him. ?Your martial focus

and your bond with your blade is already so close that it would take

little effort on your part once I explained the foundations of the

technique.?

Kuno was flabbergasted.

?I would be honored Master Aerandir,? he replied after a few

minutes of envious staring at the sparkling ethereal flames that

licked along the blade.

?Good! We have a few days before we reach Monaco. That

should be time enough to get you started if we work at it. Who

knows? You may master this in only a few years.?

Nabiki looked at Kuno, and saw wheels turning in his head

that were unlike any she had ever expected from him. Then

again, this was about sword fighting, his only genius and first

passion of anything in this world. He?d probably have it down

pat by the end of the week.

Professor McFogg took his tea with Mister Clay and the Prince

of Monaco a little earlier than usual. All three were busy men, but

had decided that an old friendship was worth a little sacrifice of

decorum. McFogg raised his teacup to the Prince and thought

back to the good old days.

?Ah Henri, when was the last time we took tea together??

Prince Rainier III gave him a chuckle. The man was in his

early seventies, still fit and hale despite the weight of age and the

hard times he had lived through.

?I believe it was about this time last year. The last time I held

this charity ball,? he replied.

?Quite so,? McFogg said quietly. ?I have been a little busy to

call on you more often.?

?We have both been busy,? the Prince added. ?How does your

little project fare these days?? He made an aside to Clay?I

remember when he first told me about it. My daughter was being

christened. I almost laughed out loud right there in the cathedral.

I?m sure the Bishop would have had me excommunicated on the

spot, sovereign or not!?

Clay laughed at his anecdote, not at all surprised to hear

something like that in regards to the Professor.

?We?ve had a bit of a setback recently,? McFogg admitted.

?But we are very close.?

?You?re running out of time, if I remember correctly.?

?Henri! Bite your tongue. I haven?t spent fifty years of my life

just to lose everything in the last few weeks. In any event, we have

found our Wayfinders. They will set us back on the path.?

?So your father was right,? the Prince remarked. ?I take it

these Wayfinders are the young couple you are bringing with

you to the ball??

?Correct as usual, Henri.?

?I shall look forward to meeting them, then.?

Ranma-chan decided that all things considered, it wasn?t a bad

looking bikini that she wore. She certainly drew enough appreciative

looks from the men. It was just a little frustrating that she couldn?t

enjoy a trip to the beach without becoming a girl. She could have

worn a conservative one-piece, but she figured that as long as she

was going to be playing on the ritzy Larvotto Beach in Monte

Carlo, she might as well look like she belonged. Half the girls here

were topless anyway.

Ryoga would have bled to death by now, she mused,

watching a pair of French girls saunter by giggling like school

children. The two were wearing something approximating dental

floss. Between them they might have had enough suit material

to seal the proverbial aspirin bottle.

And I thought the suit Nabiki made me wear was

nonexistent.

She had a couple bottles of flavored mineral water for herself

and Akane. As she made her way down the stone steps to the

beach, she spotted Hiro and Ferguson coming from across the

sand towards her. Hiro was wearing a tank top and swim trunks,

while Ferguson indulged in a pair of Speedos. The scientist was

deathly in need of a tan.

? Hello there lass, ? Ferguson greeted her. ? You?re looking

beautiful today. ?

There was something disturbing about Ferguson?s words. Like

he didn?t mind that Ranma was really a guy even when he happened

to be a girl at the moment. At least his transformation hadn?t

completely freaked him out the first time like it did most people.

? Hi Ferg, ? Ranma-chan replied. ? You?re blinding me with

that lack of a tan. ?

Ferguson laughed. ? Perhaps I should get out more. ?

?That for Akane-chan?? Hiro asked, gesturing to the bottled

water.

?Yeah. Do you know where she went off to? I can?t see her

from here.?

Ferguson waved to the two and started off. ? I?m headed back

for the hotel before I get burnt to a crisp. See you this evening.

Ciao. ?

Hiro and Ranma-chan waved good-bye.

?Yeah I know where she is,? Hiro said to her when Ferguson

had left. ?Follow me.?

Ranma-chan followed his lead.

?You know you are looking pretty sassy in that bikini,

Saotome.?

?Watch it, Hiro.?

?Just making an observation.?

They continued on down the beach a little ways.

?So you talk to her yet?? Hiro asked.

?About??

?You know what I?m talking about.?

Ranma-chan was silent a moment. He and Akane had reached

an unspoken agreement wherein they just didn?t talk about what

had happened that night in Hiro?s hotel room in Spain. About

marrying Akane, and his unreadiness to do so. That didn?t mean

he hadn?t been thinking about it ever since. He had the sleepless

nights to prove it.

?Not yet.?

?You?re blowing it, Saotome.?

Ranma-chan kicked at the sand.

?Who are you supposed to be, my old man??

?Nah, just your friend.?

?Some friend to keep opening up old wounds.?

?Better to open them up and let ?em drain than to sit there and

watch them fester,? Hiro countered. ?But, hey, I?ll lay off for now.?

They found Akane asleep on her beach towel. She was wearing

a turquoise colored bikini with tiny silver stars embroidered upon

it. An arm was draped over her eyes to keep the Mediterranean

sun at bay.

Ranma-chan pressed her finger to her lips and bade Hiro be

silent. Very carefully she crept up to Akane. Hiro started to snigger

when he saw Ranma-chan carefully position the icy bottle of

water over Akane?s belly.

She slid the cold wet bottle over Akane, who doubled up and

screamed in shock and surprise. Ranma-chan jumped back with

a cackling laugh, and Hiro fell over onto the sand. Akane caught

her bearings, saw Ranma-chan with the offending bottle still in

her hand, and began to steam about the ears.

?Raaanmaaaa...?

?Aw whatsa matter Akane?? Ranma-chan mocked. ?Was

that cold??

?...Die...?

?Run, Saotome! Run!? Hiro cried, nearly in tears at this point.

Ranma-chan decided that Hiro might have a point. She hopped

to her feet and bolted away. Akane jumped up after her and

began yelling for her to stop. Voices of beach goers cried out in

a medley of French, Italian, Mon駡sque, and English as they

weaved through them.

?What? So you can clobber me? No way!? Ranma-chan cried

in response.

She decided to cool her off by heading for the water. Akane

followed after as Ranma-chan ran past the crowds and dove

headlong into a wave. When she came up, Akane was there

next to her. She was Not Amused.

?Uhh... Hi Akane!? She cried in her sunniest voice.

Akane dropped a fist down on top of her head. Ranma-chan

sunk beneath the waves. Bubbles appeared at the top of the water

as a wave rolled gently over her.

Ranma-chan burst to the surface a moment later waggling her

tongue at Akane.

?You never cease to amaze me Ranma,? Akane told her,

ignoring the raspberry she was getting.

Ranma-chan stopped. ?Oh yeah??

?Just when I think you can?t be any bigger jerk you always top

yourself!?

?I couldn?t help it!? Ranma-chan cried. ?You were practically

begging for me to do it!?

?I?m going to kill you now...? Akane replied in a cold blooded

voice.

She dunked Ranma-chan in the next instant. She brought her

back out of the water to take a breath, then dunked her back under.

This continued for several cycles before Ranma-chan started

laughing when she should have been concentrating on breathing.

Akane dunked her again, and this time Ranma-chan caught a

lungful of water. When she began struggling in her grasp, Akane

let her up. Ranma-chan burst out of the water coughing and

spluttering.

Concern replaced anger in Akane?s eyes.

?Are you all right??

?Fine,? Ranma-chan gasped. ?Just peachy.? She spat out a

bit of water. ?For tryin? to breathe in the whole ocean I?m just

fine.?

?Serves you right you jerk,? Akane scolded.

?I?m sorry if you?re sorry,? Ranma-chan returned.

Akane looked at her for a moment. ?I?m sorry, Ranma.?

Ranma-chan grinned. ?Changed my mind, I?m not sorry!? She

pushed Akane under and then lifted her up and started laughing.

It was a playful laugh, and instead of being set off again, Akane

started laughing and playfully wrestling with her.

?You are such a jerk, Ranma!? She cried merrily.

?I know,? she replied with another grin. Without thinking of

her present form, she took Akane up into a hug.

Akane thought nothing of it either at first. She put her arms

around Ranma-chan and kissed her cheek. She was so used to

seeing Ranma as a girl that it didn?t click.

It was after they pressed close to each other that they

remembered.

?Oops,? Ranma-chan said softly. ?Sorry, wasn?t thinking.?

?Neither was I,? Akane said with a bit of a blush. ?Everybody

probably thinks we?re lesbians now.?

?You crazy kids!? Hiro called to them through the surf. ?I

can?t leave you two alone for a minute before you?re off necking

somewhere!?

Akane saw that Hiro was still wearing his tank top in the water.

?Take your shirt off Hiro,? she called back to him. ?Let?s see

what a real man?s chest looks like!? At this last bit she cocked

her head towards Ranma-chan, who grunted something inaudible

and probably profane.

Hiro looked suddenly very uncomfortable.

?Uh, that?s okay. I think I?ll keep it on, thanks.?

Akane was about to ask what the problem was when Ranma-chan

nudged her beneath the water.

?Drop it,? she whispered.

She looked quickly to Ranma-chan, who gave her an equally

quick ?trust me on this? look. Then she turned back and smiled

for Hiro.

?Okay. Suit yourself!? She said cheerily.

Nothing could have suited Hiro more than to drop the subject.

He came up to them and splashed them both with water. They

doused him in reply.

?Enjoying ourselves?? He asked, wiping his wet hair out of

his eyes.

?Oh yes,? Akane replied wistfully. ?If it wasn?t for this whole

?event? business this would be the most fun I?ve had in a very

long while. But don?t get me wrong, I?m still having a grand time!?

?I think Akane?s figured out that she likes to travel,? Ranma-chan

observed.

?Plenty of that to be had,? Hiro replied. ?I guess we?re heading

back to England tomorrow -since we can?t figure out where to go

next.?

Akane looked downcast.

?I?m really sorry we couldn?t help the Professor. I feel like we

let him down.?

?We?ll think of something. I know we?ve got some of the

smartest people in the world working on it. Don?t let it bother

you Akane-chan, nobody?s blaming you for anything.?

?If only we could figure out what the ?Crown of Eternity?

meant,? Ranma-chan said. She had been thinking about it off and

on ever since the event in Granada. She?d also been thinking

about the vision with Ukyo, and wondering if it was symbolic

or a harbinger of things to come.

?There?s only about three hundred and fifty known geographical

references with the word ?Eternity? in them,? Hiro said. ?So either

it?s a metaphor for something, or we?re in for a very long search.?

?If Anazali shows up again, we could ask her,? Akane offered.

?She might know.?

?She?ll turn up whenever she has something to say to us,?

Ranma-chan said. ?Not before.?

?Well enough about that stuff,? Hiro said to them. ?In my

capacity as majordomo and all around Man Friday for the

Professor, it is my duty to inform you that you still have to get

fitted for that tuxedo some time today. And your gown Akane;

it will probably need to have a few finishing touches put on it

that will require your presence.?

?Do we have to go tonight?? Ranma-chan asked.

Akane elbowed her stiffly in the ribs. ?Of course we have to

go,? she replied. ?The Professor has once again gone to a lot of

trouble for us. We?re obligated.?

?I know nothing about ballroom dancing!? Ranma-chan

protested.

?Well you?re in luck,? Akane said with a wicked grin. ?I do.?

?So??

?So I?ll have to lead, I guess. Face it Ranma; you?re going to

waltz with me tonight, and you?re going to like it.?

Ranma-chan groaned pathetically.

The familiar howl of Pratt and Whitney R-1830 supercharged

engines grew in their ears. They looked up to see Bettie?s Dare

roar overhead at about three hundred feet. The Catalina pushed

over into a turn, rounded the Fort Antoine Theater in the distant

Monaco district, and came in for a landing just outside the

concrete breakwater of the large La Condamine marina. It

taxied into the marina and disappeared from sight behind the

bevy of yachts at anchor there.

?Looks like Durango and D-Day have arrived,? Hiro remarked.

?Don?t tell me they?re going to this ball, too?? Ranma-chan

asked.

?Probably not; it?s a black tie affair. Heironymous hates to

dress up.?

?So why is he here?? Akane asked.

?Beats me. I guess we can ask him later.?

Kelebros reached Monaco about midway through the third

afternoon at sea. Aerandir conversed in French with Monaco

Harbor Control via a small maritime radio. Nabiki watched the

yachts and merchant shipping sailing around them as they neared

the marina. Kuno kept a sharp lookout for any possible collision

hazards on the prow.

? Thank you very much, Monaco Control, ? Aerandir said

fondly into the radio.

? It is always a pleasure to hear from you, Monsieur

Aerandir, ? Control replied.

Aerandir looked to Nabiki and winked. ?It?s nice to be well

known in these waters. You should see the trouble I have getting

into Rio de Janeiro sometimes.?

?Something tells me you can sweet-talk your way into any

harbor you like,? Nabiki returned.

?Perhaps so, but it is nice to have them cooperative from the

start.? He looked forward to Kuno, who was scanning the waters

ahead of them with a pair of binoculars.

?Blue Thunder! I intend to make my turn at Buoy Number

Three, marked in red with two white lights. I shall come right to

course 2-6-1 and proceed into the marina. Do keep an eye out

for that bulk freighter bearing on our port beam.?

?Yes, the contemptible vessel seems bound and determined to

intercept us at every turn,? Kuno observed. He scanned the 45,000

ton container ship with the binoculars. ?The MV La Roussa, out

of Genoa. We shall have to report them to the maritime authorities.?

The container ship was bound for nearby Nice.

?Perhaps,? Aerandir replied, but the tone of his voice suggested

that he was used to inconsiderate ships? masters. ?I have advised

them of my intentions, and they have informed me that they will

stand off and allow our turn.?

Nabiki watched the interplay between all of the ships around

them. She never imagined that the Mediterranean would be so

busy. Today alone she had seen numerous merchant ships,

pleasure yachts, an oil tanker, an Italian submarine surface

bound for Toulon, and a U.S. Navy carrier battlegroup that

Aerandir informed her was bound for the Persian Gulf. Even

with them several thousand yards from the nearest escort

ship, the carrier?s size defied belief.

Aerandir wheeled Kelebros around the buoy. As it did so, Kuno

watched as MV La Roussa picked up speed and swept by them

with five hundred yards to spare. Perhaps Nabiki didn?t appreciate

that five hundred yards was a very small distance when it came to

ships that required several miles of water to turn or stop in, but

she couldn?t understand why Aerandir made such a big deal about

it.

Kelebros slipped past the concrete breakwater and into the

marina harbor. The sight of so many beautiful (and ridiculously

expensive) yachts in one place was starting to make Nabiki?s

mouth water. Aerandir guided the ship carefully alongside the

designated slip. With no propulsion power other than the wind,

it took longer than the Pier Services crew waiting on the slip

were used to. In the end Aerandir cheated a little to get his

favorable winds.

They tied up alongside the slip and Aerandir spoke with the

Port Authority and with Customs in rapid fire French. He handed

several small black books to the man, who looked them over and

nodded approvingly. The Customs man left without another

word, while the man from the Port Authority went through

the standard Pier Services and Harbor fees routine.

When the business was concluded Aerandir returned to Kuno

and Nabiki.

?I have arranged entry visas for the two of you,? he told

them. ?These are your passports. I admit they have dubious

origins but will pass any spot inspection they may be subjected to.?

?Where did you get these?? Nabiki asked.

?I had an idea that you would be accompanying me in the

future,? Aerandir told them. ?So I had them made before we left

the other morning using my uncle?s resources. I had expected

Ukyo to join us as well, so I had one made for her. I?m very sorry

she did not.?

Nabiki and Kuno took their respective passports. They seemed

a little heavy.

?I have a few more things to take care of, so if you would like

to do a little sight-seeing than you are welcome to do so. Just don?t

forget where Kelebros is moored. And remember that you still have

to return in time to get dressed for the ball this evening, so if you

could return by sundown that would probably be best.?

?Great!? Nabiki said. ?Come on Kuno-baby, let?s go shopping.?

She took his arm and led him across the brow. He threw

Aerandir a confused look, which the mariner returned with a

wink.

?I shall see you this evening!? Aerandir reminded them.

The first thing Nabiki did was find them a taxi. Fortunately she

found one whose driver spoke passable English. She communicated

her desires to do a little sight-seeing and a little shopping at the same

time. The driver understood and drove them into Fontvieille district.

The crowded houses and buildings of Monaco were a comfort

to her, as they reminded her so much of Tokyo. Monaco of course

was having a bit more trouble with the availability of real estate

than Japan, but in contrast none of the residents seemed to mind

as much. The first thing she noticed about the people of this tiny

principality was that while they were very friendly and outgoing,

no one was in any kind of hurry.

As she suspected, what made their passports so heavy was

that Aerandir had stuffed them with spending money, and a little

note from him telling them to enjoy themselves. She had 5000

French francs or roughly the equivalent of 100,000 yen. The

amount surprised her as much as it delighted her. Then again

having lived as long as he did, he had ample opportunity to

amass the kind of fortune where such generosity came easy.

She decided to pass on the generosity and tipped the cabbie

handsomely. He nodded thanks and gave them a personal card.

If they ever needed a ride somewhere they could just call, any

time day or night. Nabiki accepted the card with a grin.

Making connections already. I like this place.

Kuno was just along for the ride. He followed her lead, and

didn?t object when she took his arm in hers. He tried to look as

noble and self-assured as possible given the circumstances.

Although it wasn?t proper for a Japanese lady to be so forward

in public, he found that he didn?t mind. It was the Nabiki he

had always known, and he doubted she would ever change

for anyone. They window shopped and browsed along the

narrow cobblestone streets and watched the people go by.

He drew a few stares for the sword he wore at his side, but

no one, not even the friendly faced police, made any issue of it.

Their first stop was a boutique that offered French and

Italian cosmetics. Tatewaki Kuno stood with incredible patience

and self discipline as Nabiki tried this or that perfume, a few

earrings and other knickknacks that men the world over just

can?t fathom the importance of, and a few shades and brands of

lipstick. It was mostly browsing, although she did buy an ounce

of a perfume that Kuno found he rather liked on her. (Of course

he was her guinea pig for all of the scents she sampled.)

They enjoyed cups of espresso at a sidewalk cafe afterwards.

Kuno nibbled at an Italian soft fried pastry but found he had little

appetite. Nabiki finished her cup and ordered another round.

?Something vexes thee, Kuno-baby?? She asked with a

sardonic smile.

Kuno raised an eyebrow at her, the most emotional response

she?d received all day from him. It must have been because she

had turned the tables on him again from their conversation in

Sarophan?s villa five days earlier.

?Not at all, Nabiki Tendo.?

?You?re sure??

?Verily.?

?Doesn?t seem that way from where I?m sitting.? She reached

over and took his mostly untouched pastry and began to break it

up with her fingers. ?Since you obviously don?t want it,? she added

in justification. She popped a piece into her mouth for punctuation.

Kuno sat there in silent reflection. From the look of him he

didn?t seem to like whatever conclusion he was reaching. He

looked down at his tepid espresso and tried a sip. He immediately

regretted it.

?You aren?t supposed to let it get cold Kuno-baby.?

A serving girl brought over their second round of espressos.

?Try it now,? Nabiki told him.

Kuno did so. He regretted it a second time.

?It appears I have no taste for this beverage.?

Nabiki signaled the girl to come over and ordered a cup of tea

for Kuno. He would have to settle for Oolong.

?It might be a bad idea for me to drink three espressos, but I

hate to see yours go to waste.?

Kuno handed her the cup and sighed. There was definitely

something bothering him. Nabiki hated to see him like that.

?Oh come on Kuno-baby, what?s the matter? You can tell me

now or you can listen to me ask you until doomsday.?

Kuno sighed again, knowing that she would make good on

her threat. ?It wounds me to admit it.?

?Admit it? Admit what??

He steeled himself. ?It wounds me to admit that I was wrong.?

Her mind turned in circles for a few seconds trying to figure

out what he was talking about.

?Wrong about what??

?Wrong to think that I didst not require thy company on this

voyage. Your skills in socialization and intercultural relations far

surpass mine own. I admit that I would not have the slightest idea

what to do in this place were it not for you to guide me. I offer

you my humblest apologies for my outburst aboard the ship.?

Nabiki?s eyes widened a little. That Kuno would ever own

up to such a thing was remarkable in and of itself. That he would

do so to her was downright amazing. ?That?s so sweet,

Kuno-baby. I didn?t think you had it in you.?

?Then you accept my apology??

?Of course I do.?

She reached over and patted his hand. ?Tell you what

Kuno-baby; leave everything to me. As soon as I need your

sword, I?ll be sure to point you in the right direction and turn

you loose.?

Kuno wasn?t sure just how much of her was being patronizing

and how much was sincere. He decided that she was a little of

both. That was in keeping with her personality. At least she hadn?t

laughed at him.

?Finish your tea,? she told him. ?We don?t have much longer

until we have to get back to the marina.?

Ranma, Akane, and Hiro strolled down the street. Akane

had the two men on either arm and was enjoying how good

that felt. They were on their way to back to their hotel in

Monaco district overlooking the La Condamine marina harbor.

Rather than take a cab they decided to walk. The beautiful

summer day was drawing to a close, and they wanted to enjoy

every minute of it.

?This is such a beautiful place,? Akane said to them.

?Too bad we can?t stay here longer,? Ranma replied. He

found he liked Monaco as well.

?Spain was nice,? Hiro observed.

?You mean the Spanish women were nice,? Ranma amended

for him.

?That too.?

?Oh-my-God,? Nabiki said softly. She couldn?t believe her eyes.

Kuno looked up from his cup of tea.

?Nabiki Tendo, thou lookest as if thou hast seen a ghost.?

?Not a ghost Kuno-baby, just my little sister.? She rose quickly

to her feet.

Kuno nearly spat out his tea.

Akane stopped dead in her tracks. Ranma and Hiro were

dragged to a halt.

?Jeez Akane, ya nearly ripped my arm out of its socket,?

Ranma groused.

Hiro looked at Akane, whose eyes were wide open in shock.

?What is it, Akane-chan??

?Akane!? Nabiki cried. ?Ranma!?

Kuno looked across the street to see Akane Tendo, the

accursed Ranma Saotome, and of all people the radioman for

3rd Platoon?A? Company; Private Ohata if he was not mistaken.

Akane ran across the street heedless of the traffic. Ranma

chased after her, stopping a cab before it could hit her. The driver

blared his horn in protest. Hiro brought up the rear wondering

what the hell was going on.

Nabiki ran out to meet her sister, and the two caught each

other up in a fierce embrace. Tears fell unbidden from her eyes

as she beheld her little sister looking tanned and gorgeous in her

arms. Akane squeezed with all of her prodigious strength, nearly

suffocating her.

?Nabiki! How? I-?

?I?ll explain in a minute,? Nabiki said in her ear. ?You?re

crushing me, sis.?

?Oh!? Akane released her hold on Nabiki.

?I?m so glad I found you two,? Nabiki said to them. Kuno

joined them in the middle of the street. The cab continued to

honk its horn.

?Kuno? You?re here too?? Akane asked. Ranma rolled his eyes,

trying to imagine what stroke of misfortune was being dealt to him

now.

?Oh Akane, my heart leaps to behold you!?

Ranma casually planted his foot in Kuno?s face before he could

catch Akane in his embrace.

?How?s it going, Kuno?? Hiro asked with a chuckle. He hadn?t

seen Ranma and Kuno go at it since last autumn on some nameless

Korean hill. It brought a smile to his face to know that some things

didn?t change.

Kuno peeled himself off of Ranma?s foot and glared for a

second.

?I am well, Private Ohata.?

?Just call me Hiro, now.?

The cabbie?s horn became quite insistent. A crowd was starting

to gather to see what was the matter.

?We better let this guy get by us,? Ranma advised.

They returned to the cafe. Nabiki brought them up to date with

the things that had happened to them since Ranma and Akane had

left Japan. They in turn told them about Anazali and the visions

they had received.

?Where?s Ukyo?? Ranma asked. ?Did she come too??

?She stayed on the island with Aerandir?s uncle,? Nabiki

supplied.

?So now these Russians are after you?? Hiro asked her.

?Us and probably Ranma and Akane as well.?

?That shall never happen,? Kuno said firmly. He fingered the

sword at his side.

?We have to tell the Professor about this,? Hiro declared. ?This

might change everything.?

The rest agreed. Even Ranma. Both groups had to return to their

respective lodgings to get changed, and they parted with the

understanding that they would meet at the Prince?s ball and talk

to the Professor. Aerandir would be there, and Ranma hoped that

perhaps Anazali herself would put in an appearance. The two of

them were obviously cut from the same cloth; both from Nabiki?s

description of Aerandir, and in her retelling of the mariner?s

historical account.

?This gets more and more complicated by the minute,? Akane

said. She twirled around for Ranma. ?How do I look??

Ranma took in the sight of her in a luminous white ballroom

gown laden with pearls and tiny gold beads. Ribbons and lace

flower blossoms adorned her hair. All she needed were wings

and a halo and he would have been looking at an angel.

?Wow,? was the best he could manage.

Akane beamed at the compliment.

?You look very handsome yourself.?

Ranma looked down at his tuxedo. ?I feel even more like

a penguin.?

Akane straightened his bow tie. ?What is it with you and ties?

They never stay straight on you.?

Ranma rolled his eyes. ?I guess they?re trying to tell me

something.?

?Like??

?Don?t wear ?em.?

Akane stood up on her toes and kissed him on the corner of

his mouth.

?I like to see you dressed like this.?

She then realized that she had smeared lipstick on him. She

giggled a little but wouldn?t tell him what was wrong. She went

to the bathroom and wet a washcloth to dabble on his face.

?Aggh!? He cried, figuring it out for himself.

?Don?t touch it,? she called to him. ?You?ll just get it all over

your clothes.?

?What is it with girls and makeup anyway??

?It makes us look prettier,? she answered.

?You look fine without it,? he remarked, still having no idea

what the big deal was.

Akane looked at him softly. ?For a jerk you can say the nicest

things at times.? She dabbled at his face. ?I?d kiss you again for

that, but I?m trying to get this off you.?

She flicked his pig-tail back over his shoulder and brushed at

his lapel.

?Ready??

Ranma shrugged. ?I still don?t like the idea of dancing with all

those rich people.?

?Don?t worry about it. I?ll lead, remember??

?Okay.?

They walked out the door of the room. Hiro and Clay were

standing there waiting. The Professor and Ferguson stepped out

of their rooms. The Professor had his meerschaum pipe clenched

in his teeth and smiled warmly for Akane.

? A vision of oriental beauty, is she not? ? He asked the

assembled party.

They quickly agreed. Akane blushed.

? Shall we be off? ?

Hiro nodded. ? I have the limousine waiting outside. ?

McFogg and the others started for the elevator lobby with Hiro

in the lead. Akane held Ranma back for a minute. She wanted to

talk to him, away from the others.

?I?m going to miss this,? she sighed.

?Miss what??

?Dressing up, going to exotic parties, traveling across Europe.

What are the chances we?ll ever get to do this again??

?I guess never,? he admitted ruefully. He had come to enjoy

their time with the Professor?s group himself. ?Once this is over

and we go home to Nerima that?ll be the end of it.?

?That?s why I want to enjoy the moment while we have it,

Ranma. That?s why I want you to enjoy yourself tonight. I want

these to be fond memories we?ll share for the rest of our lives.?

Share for the rest of our lives... Ranma thought as he

took Akane?s arm in his. He looked at her as they walked to the

elevator lobby and his heart swelled with love for her. In that

moment of reflection he found a new resolve within him.

I want to share the rest of my life with you, Akane...

He clenched his right hand into a fist. His knuckles popped,

he squeezed so hard.

Now I just gotta bring myself to tell her that!

?I?m a little worried about what Nabiki told us,? Akane said,

oblivious to the turmoil that raged suddenly within him.

?I won?t let anything happen to you,? Ranma replied. ?I

swear to you.?

?This is just so crazy. I mean how did we get caught up in the

middle of all this? Now my sister and Kuno and even Ukyo are

involved.?

?It?s my fault. Remember what Anazali told us? She said it

was my ki-blast in North Korea that got all these people?s

attentions.?

?She isn?t telling us everything. There?s more to it than that.

I saw the lions again in Granada. They told me we both had parts

to play in this. I just want to know what they are!?

?I know,? Ranma soothed. ?Me too... But until then all we

can do is watch out for these Russians and take this one day

at a time.?

Chapter Four

? His Royal Highness, Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand

de Grimaldi the Third, Prince of Monaco! ? The Herald cried in

a great voice for the assembled guests. His announcement was

followed by a bright trumpet fanfare.

Those seated rose to their feet. A great clamor of applause

arose as the Prince entered the Grand Ballroom of the Palace

with his retinue. The band began to play the National Anthem of

Monaco?Monegasque.? A Color Guard, wearing brightly

polished breastplates and morion helms and bearing silvered

pikes with red and white pennons tied to them, brought in the

family colors of the House of Grimaldi and the flag of Monaco;

a banner split in half lengthwise with a bar of red above a bar

of white.

Ranma joined Akane in the applause, as did Nabiki, Kuno

and Hiro. The five Japanese stood at their table, which was next

to a table occupied by the Professor, Ferguson, and Clay. That

table in turn was next to the one the Prince would retire to once

the formalities were dispensed. Aerandir was somewhere across

the brilliantly polished marble floor mingling with old

acquaintances.

Professor McFogg also had a guest at his table, an old man

named Casimir. They hadn?t met him yet, but they assumed it

was the same Doctor Casimir the Professor had mentioned before.

If he was the Professor?s friend, they decided he was okay,

Russian or not. Casimir and Ferguson had been carrying on an

animated conversation earlier.

Their attentions were drawn back to the Prince as he prepared

to speak.

The Prince smiled handsomely for the assembled guests and

waved his hands to beg for quiet.

? I wish to thank all of you for attending tonight?s charity

ball, ? he began. ? I know some of you had better things to do

tonight, but I thank you for remembering me. ?

The crowd began to murmur fond laughter.

? So at the risk of not boring you to tears- ?

Again the crowd laughed. There was a smattering of mirthful

applause. The Prince begged for quiet again with an infectious grin.

? So at the risk of not boring you to tears I shall keep this

short. Enjoy the evening! Maestro, strike up the band! ?

He waved to the maestro, who raised his baton in salute to

the Prince. The crowd applauded once again, and their voices

echoed throughout the vaulting Grand Ballroom. Akane watched

wide eyed as the music began to play and couples moved out

onto the floor. It was like something out of a romantic dream

for her.

The band began to play Johann Strauss?Emperor Waltz.?

Akane tugged at Ranma?s arm.

?Come on!? She said happily to him.

?I was kinda hopin? you?d wait a bit,? he muttered. ?At least

let me watch everyone to get an idea what I?m supposed to do.?

?Just follow my lead,? she said to him. ?You?ll learn it in

no time.?

?Easy for you to say.?

?Just think of it as training!?

She pulled him out onto the dance floor.

Nabiki was radiant in her black silken gown. She wore a diadem

which Aerandir had given to her. It glittered with diamonds atop her

head. She took Kuno by the arm, who was smashing in his turn of

the century tuxedo. (Another gift from Aerandir.) His tall height and

his martial poise lent him a statuesque regality.

?Shall we, Kuno-baby??

?The pleasure is all mine, Nabiki Tendo.?

Kuno was more than willing to prove how acculturated he was.

Particularly upon hearing Ranma?s admission that he didn?t know

how to waltz. With a brief check to ensure his sword was secure

at his side he followed Nabiki out onto the floor.

Aerandir mingled with the guests, renewing old acquaintances

and meeting new additions to families he hadn?t seen in years. He

wore a brilliant saber to match his silvery complexion in contrast

to his black tuxedo, which wasn?t unusual considering half the

men present were so armed. Most of them carried ceremonial

swords, just for dress occasions. Aerandir?s sword was quite real.

He paid his respects to the Prince, who was happy to see him

as usual, and remarked that he should visit more than just once a

year. The Prince jabbed McFogg in the rib as he did so. The

Professor for his part noted his silvery complexion but said

nothing. Doctor Casimir was busy talking to a younger gentleman

about physics.

The Prince was somewhat aware of Aerandir?s nature, but in

keeping with a promise made during the Second World War, kept

his silence about the mariner?s youthful appearance after fifty

years of acquaintance. Aerandir made pleasant small talk for

awhile with him, mindful not to broach any subject that might

reveal his secret. After a bit he excused himself and continued to

mingle.

He was not expecting to run into any of his own kind. So the

sight of Anazali in a ballroom gown and cape came as quite a

surprise. She was similarly surprised to see him.

?I had the feeling there was another one of us here,? she said

as she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. ?But I didn?t think it

would be you, Sil Amarn.?

He kissed her in return. ?I confess that I didn?t expect to meet

one of us at all, particularly the lovely Anazali.?

?You never pay attention to such things. You spend too much

time alone at sea.?

?At sea, yes. But not alone.?

?Your ghost sailors don?t count,? she observed.

?They would be very upset to hear you say that. There are

those of our kind among them you know.?

She led him out onto the floor. ?Dance with me and we?ll talk.?

Akane showed Ranma how to stand and where to put his

hands. She began to slowly walk him through the steps. He

found it wasn?t so tough, as long as he looked at it as training.

When he started to look at Akane and how beautiful she was

in her gown and combined it with the lively yet stately music

of the waltz, he began to get a little excited and just a little

clumsy. She steadied him gently and giggled softly.

?What?s the matter? This too hard for you??

?You?re distracting me,? he admitted.

She laughed breathily in his ear. ?There you go again, Ranma.

Saying all these sweet things has me confused. I?m not used to it

yet.?

?Sorry.?

?No, please keep it up!?

He was starting to figure it out by the end of the ?Emperor

Waltz.? The band launched into ?Vienna Blood,? also by Strauss,

without pause. Akane let him take the lead, and together they

whirled across the floor.

They met Nabiki and Kuno in the middle of the dance floor,

and the two sisters exchanged happy smiles. Ranma and Kuno

glared at each other, but for the sake of decorum kept it at that.

Akane steered Ranma away, and they danced on.

?Seeing Nabiki dancing with Kuno is a little weird,? Ranma

remarked.

?I don?t know,? Akane replied. ?I guess it?s a little strange that

they?re getting along so well. Kuno actually looks kind of happy

with her.?

?Yeah. You?d think he was actually doing it of his own free will.?

?Ranma!? She cried petulantly. ?My sister isn?t half as bad as

you make her out to be.?

?How often have you been on the receiving end of her

schemes?? He replied. ?But seriously, I think you?re right.

Maybe that time they spent together on the run brought them

closer to each other.?

?Could be. Although that is a little weird in itself.?

?Vienna Blood? faded into a third waltz by Strauss?Roses from

the South.? Ranma by now had grown comfortable with dancing,

mostly because Akane was always there to keep him on track when

he started to get confused. We really do work well together, he

thought suddenly. And Akane isn?t the klutz she used to be.

The waltz ended and the band took a brief rest. The guests

applauded mightily for them and retired to their tables. Ranma

didn?t realize it at first, but he had been dancing with Akane for

thirty minutes without pause.

They returned to their table. The Professor, Doctor Casimir,

and the Prince of Monaco bade the two to join them. A little

shyly, they walked over to the table.

Akane curtsied and Ranma bowed for the Prince.

? You two look as if you?re having a fine time! ? Rainier said

to them in English.

? We are, your Highness! ? Akane enthused.

? Henri is fine, ? the Prince amended gently. ? I am glad I

could meet you. Balthazar has told me so much about you. ?

? None of it good I assure you, ? McFogg quipped. He puffed

at his pipe as the Prince threw up his hands and berated him good-

naturedly in French for his rudeness.

They chatted with the Prince and with Doctor Casimir for about

forty-five minutes, and Akane found the Prince to be as charismatic

and adorable as the Professor, if somewhat better mannered and

chivalrous. Doctor Casimir was mostly curious about their

experiences with the Professor?s group, but Akane didn?t sense

anything threatening about him. All in all she found that she rather

liked the doctor. Ranma, never much of a conversationalist, decided

to sit back and watch the couples move across the floor.

When the band began to play the lively strains of Tchaikovsky?s

?Capriccio Italien,? Akane was drawn to the dance floor almost by

magnetism. Ranma of course was drawn by Akane?s firm grip.

The Prince laughed so hard at the sight of Ranma struggling in

Akane?s grasp that tears streamed down his face and his men

wondered what could possibly be wrong with him.

? They are wonderful, Balthazar. ? He managed at last. ? You

have made my whole evening by bringing them. ?

? Happy to oblige you Henri, ? McFogg said with a puff on his

pipe. ? They are quite infectious, aren?t they? ?

? I envy you Balthazar, ? Casimir said. ? You really have done

it. ?

The Professor chose his words carefully.

? Ferguson was telling me some time ago that he wished you

were part of the group, ? McFogg said to his old friend. ? I know

you can help us Grigory, whether we have the Wayfinders or not.

Why don?t you join us? ?

Casimir looked away for a moment.

? Let me think about it, old friend. ?

? I?ll give you as long as I can, but you know time is running out. ?

? Yes Balthazar, I know. ?

He watched the young couple glide out onto the marble floor.

? It?s just that simple, isn?t it? ?

McFogg and Prince Rainier leaned forward in their chairs.

? What is, Grigory? ? The Prince asked him.

? Love. ?

? Love? What do you mean? ? McFogg asked.

? It?s their bond, their link... I can feel it in my bones... That?s

why there are two Wayfinders this time. ?

?What is it with you and dancing?? Ranma asked her. ?This

ain?t even a waltz!?

?Just follow me,? Akane told him. She turned her back to him,

pressed close against his chest, and set one of his hands on her

stomach as she took the other in hers. Her head seemed to lay

against his shoulder for a moment before she took off across

the floor.

Ranma followed after, trying to stay with the rhythm of the

music for his cues. ?Capriccio? was a little too free-flowing for

any such help in that line of thought, and in the end he just tried to

keep up with her. She whispered prompts to him to turn her around

or to dip, and even though they looked a little foolish at times

nobody seemed to mind, and Akane loved every minute of it.

Tchaikovsky?s ?Capriccio? ended, and was followed by Maurice

Ravel?s ?Valses Nobles et Sentimentales.? It was a waltz, and

Ranma was happy to be back in roughly familiar territory. He

took Akane up into his arms and began to lead.

?That wasn?t so bad,? she said to him.

?I still don?t know why you like this so much.?

?Aren?t you having fun??

?Well... Just a little I suppose.?

?I?m glad, Ranma.?

Tatewaki Kuno and Nabiki Tendo were dancing a little closer

than they were before. The swordsman was beginning to find that

the woman in his arms was perhaps more than he had thought of

before. Nabiki looked at him fondly, though there was no doe-eyed

worship in those languid orbs. Far from it.

That fact was what perhaps had drawn him closer to her after

all. He appreciated strength and resolve as a martial artist. That was

why he loved Akane and the Pig-Tailed Girl so much. There was

great strength in Nabiki Tendo. Not physical strength, but it

manifested in her indomitable spirit.

Perhaps he did consider her just a bit more than a friend?

But if he did, and she was of a similar frame of mind concerning

him, (there were indications that this was so), where did that leave

the other objects of his affections? Nabiki Tendo was not the sort

of person who would brook the divided attentions that he gave to

Akane and the Pig-Tailed Girl.

If she wanted him, she wanted all of him.

It was quite a dilemma for him, and every time he looked into

her eyes his heart quailed for an instant in indecision. What am I

to do? He thought to himself. This cup will not pass from me,

I must choose! Oh the tragedy of it all!

Nabiki could almost feel the turmoil raging within Tatewaki

Kuno. She was fairly certain that she was one of the principles

involved. Ravel?s ?Bolero? began to play, and while it was not a

waltz (it was a ballet), many couples continued to dance to it.

She loved ?Bolero,? and stepped in just a little closer to Tatewaki

Kuno as they danced.

Ranma and Akane stayed out on the floor as ?Bolero? began.

?It?s not just the music and the dancing,? she said as they

whirled across the floor. ?It?s you, Ranma.?

?Huh??

?You?re such a rock sometimes,? she told him as she stuck her

tongue out at him slightly. ?Being with you like this really makes

me feel good. It?s so romantic...? She let her words drift away

softly and looked up into his eyes.

?You mean girl stuff,? he remarked.

Her eyes suddenly crossed in ire.

?But that?s okay,? he was quick to add with a smirk. ??Cause I

do kinda like this. It makes it easy to remember why I feel the way

I do about you.?

The erotic playfulness of the music inspired Nabiki. She had

made up her own mind, even if the man before her struggled on.

She leaned up against him, and his eyes widened in surprise.

?Tate-chan, if you don?t kiss me right this instant I?m going to

scream,? she whispered in a silky voice.

Her invocation of such an intimate pet name for him suddenly

inflamed him. That and the fact that she was quite capable of

carrying out her threat. He took her up into his arms and kissed

her with everything he had. She circled her arms around his neck

and they moved slowly to the music in a deepening embrace.

Ranma had said just the right thing, because Akane lay her

head upon his shoulder and gave him a squeeze. The rich strings

and stirring woodwinds swelled around them.

?I love you, Ranma.?

Ranma nuzzled against her sweet smelling hair. ?And I love

you, Akane.?

In that moment he knew he had to do it. The time was right

and his heart was open and he knew he could say it. He just

wanted a place a little more private.

Akane gasped in surprise as she saw Nabiki and Kuno kissing

passionately in the middle of the dance floor. Ranma turned to see

what had elicited such a response from her and nearly died of shock

himself.

?Oh-my-God,? Akane breathed.

?I don?t believe it either,? Ranma agreed.

Akane smiled as the two parted and Nabiki?s eye caught hers

for a brief instant. Her older sister winked at her and then turned

back to Kuno.

?Maybe it isn?t so bad after all,? Akane whispered. ?Maybe they

do make a good couple.?

Ranma steered her away. ?Come on. Let?s go outside for awhile.?

?Oh? What for??

?I have something to ask you.? He continued on, heart racing as

he took her hand in his. Akane?s pulse quickened as well. She had

an idea what this was about.

He led her off the dance floor. They ran into Hiro who had just

finished dancing with a young Austrian debutante and was feeling

quite worn out. (But very pleased with himself.)

?Hello you two,? Hiro said to them. ?You look like you?re going

somewhere.? He gestured to the coat and cape that Ranma was

gathering up from their chairs.

?We?re going to take a walk for awhile. Talk about some things.?

Ranma supplied.

?May I recommend?? Hiro asked.

?Please do!? Akane said sprightly.

?The west end of the Palace is bordered by a nice romantic park,?

he told them. He pointed to a door across the ballroom. ?Take that

door and turn right. Go all the way down the hall and you?ll come

out in the park. I?m sure it would be the perfect place to ?talk about

some things.?? He winked for them.

?Hiro, did anyone tell you that you were absolutely wonderful??

Akane asked him with a grateful smile.

?Not in the last five minutes,? he grinned.

?Well you?re absolutely wonderful!?

?My pleasure Akane-chan. You kids have fun.?

He got up from his seat to get a little liquid refreshment, winking

once more at them as he did so.

Ranma looked at Akane, who took his hand and led him out.

Aerandir enjoyed dancing with Anazali. He couldn?t remember

the last time they?d been together. Neither could she.

?So tell me why you?re really here,? she said to him in their own

tongue.

?I told you once, dearest. I am a guest of the Prince, and have

been ever since he ascended the throne in ?49. Perhaps if you

mingled a bit more you?d have seen me at this charity ball one

of those years.?

?I mingle in different circles than you I?m afraid.?

?So I?ve noticed. Now would you mind telling me why you

are here??

?You know why I?m here.?

?I?d like to hear it from you.?

?I?m looking after a young couple for Nimatar.?

?Their names wouldn?t happen to be Ranma Saotome and

Akane Tendo, would they??

Anazali gave him a fierce look.

?For someone who makes an effort to avoid the rest of us, you

seem to know a great deal about current events.?

?Rest easy my lady. I know this because I ended up caring for

the sister of Akane Tendo. I learned everything I know from her.?

?So convince me that you?re not about your uncle?s business.?

?I have never supported his irresponsible dreams. You know

this.?

?But you won?t help us stop him either.?

?He is my only family next to a brother who wants little to do

with me.?

Anazali sighed.

?Sil Amarn, when will you realize that you have to put the fate

of this world before your estranged family ties??

Aerandir was silent a moment.

?Until almost ninety years ago I didn?t think he was serious.

But with the industrialization of the world and population boom

in the last century I think he saw what was coming before any of

the rest of us did. I think it galvanized him into action. When he

failed the first time I thought he had given it up...?

?But he hasn?t,? Anazali said for him.

?No he hasn?t,? Aerandir confirmed. ?I saw the Prism in his

Aegean villa. The damned thing survived the blast unscathed.

How many thousands of acres of forest were leveled??

?Too many,? Anazali replied. ?The blast was heard as far

away as London and Beijing. And then there was the death of

Jubal to think of...?

?He was a fool to think he could have stopped it.?

?He did stop it,? she corrected.

?He postponed it,? Aerandir countered. ?The Prism, as I said,

is unscathed. And now my uncle will try again.?

?We?re going to stop him.?

?Short of killing him, which I know none of you will do even

if you were strong enough, I don?t see how.?

?That my dear Sil Amarn, is why we have Ranma and Akane.?

?Hello Hiro,? Nabiki said cordially to him. She dangled a dazed

and confused Tatewaki Kuno on her arm.

?Hello Nabiki,? Hiro replied. He wasn?t sure what to make of

Kuno, as he had missed their tender moment.

?Have you seen Akane and Ranma?? She asked him.

?I sent them out into the park,? Hiro replied. ?I think they

wanted to be alone for awhile.?

?I guess it can wait,? Nabiki smiled.

Tatewaki Kuno tensed at her arm.

?What is it Tate-chan?? She asked him.

Tate-chan? Hiro thought in wonder. The Kuno I know

would never suffer a pet name like that. Or any pet name for that

matter. These two must be serious. He looked at Nabiki, who

was quite entrancing in her gown. Lucky bastard.

Kuno pointed across the ballroom. A large man with dark

forelocks and an equally dark countenance ducked through a

door. Fyodor.

He reached for his katana.

?Mine eyes beheld the foul and contemptible lackey of our

captor,? he said, and tried to surge forward out of Nabiki?s grasp.

She caught him up and held him fast.

?What?? Nabiki cried. ?Here??

?I would not make such words in jest, Nabiki. Now release

me at once!?

?What?s going on?? Hiro asked.

?The Russians are here!? Nabiki cried. ?The same ones who

kidnapped us!?

Hiro reached into his tuxedo jacket. The Sig was there and

ready. ?The park! Follow me!?

?Lead the way, Ohata!? Kuno snarled.

Nabiki followed after them.

Doctor Casimir couldn?t believe his eyes. He had just seen the

Ukrainian spy and assassin Fyodor and some of his men through a

crowd of guests. It all became so clear to him.

? Oh dear God, ? he whispered.

? What is it? ? McFogg asked.

? Ranma and Akane are in great danger! ? He said quickly.

? We must find them at once! Oh Vanya, how I underestimated

your ruthlessness! ?

McFogg looked to Clay and Ferguson who rose to their feet.

? Where is Hiro? ?

Ferguson pointed across the ballroom to where Hiro, Kuno,

and Nabiki made haste to follow after the Ukrainian.

? There he goes! Looks like he?s already on to them! ?

? I think they?re headed for the park, ? Clay added.

Prince Rainier looked away from his conversation with the

French attach頡nd turned to the scientists.

? Is something the matter? ?

? Alert your security force your Highness! ? The Professor

cried in a hushed voice. ? Something terrible may be happening

to Ranma and Akane! ?

The Prince gave quick and discreet orders to his men.

Bodyguards and plainclothes security men began to fan out from

the Ballroom without any of the guests being the wiser.

? You can inform me along the way, ? the Prince told them

as he and his personal bodyguards joined them in leaving the

Ballroom. Again no one was yet the wiser that anything was

amiss. Once out of the hall the Prince?s men pulled suppressed

Uzis and MP-5s from underneath jackets.

Chapter Five

Hiro was right. The park was the perfect place for what

Ranma had in mind. It was quiet and shady without being too

dark. Trees sighed with the cool summer breeze. The sea air

was crisp and clean smelling, invigorating even. The moon

shone down brightly upon them.

He brushed at Akane?s hair. She seemed to glow from within.

Her eyes glittered and she held him in a loose but loving embrace.

?I didn?t mean to hurt you when we were in Spain,? he began.

?You didn?t hurt me,? she replied.

?Yeah I did. And I?m sorry. I was only thinking about me.?

She leaned close and lay her head against his chest.

?What do you mean?? She asked quietly.

?I shoulda been thinking about us.?

She looked up at him, remaining quiet, watching him with eyes

that couldn?t have been more loving.

Ranma swallowed hard. Now the butterflies were gathering in

swarms within.

?Hiro told me what you talked about together that night,? he

said, still fighting for the resolve that was so easy to come by until

he actually put himself on the spot. ?I just wanted to say that I never

stood by our parents? arrangment.?

Akane tensed in his embrace.

?If we were to be married, it would have to be an agreement

between you and me. Not between our interfering fathers. Not

some stupid promise that was made when we were just babies.?

Now she looked at him in desperate confusion.

?Our engagement should be between us, Akane.?

Ranma got down on one knee and looked up at her. He held

her hands in his. All at once the butterflies were gone and the knots

in his stomach came undone. That clarity and resolve he had felt

while dancing with her returned. He knew the right thing to do

now, the words he had to say. Nothing mattered more than sharing

what he felt with her right this minute.

Akane?s heart began racing. All the emotions she had flooded

through her at once. Tears welled at her eyes against her will.

This was supposed to be one of the happiest moments of her

life and she was ready to start bawling.

Ranma looked up into her eyes and drew breath to speak.

?Will you marry me, Akane??

She closed her eyes, still hearing his voice in her heart. Even

when he had confessed his love to her a winter?s night and an

eternity ago she had never felt more joy, more fulfillment than

she did now. The tears spilled down the soft skin of her face

and were caught in tiny crystalline beads of light by the wind,

salty droplets mingling with the seaspray of the Monaco night.

She pulled him to his feet and threw her arms around him. He

gathered her up into a fierce embrace that left their hearts beating

swiftly and in harmony. Her lips brushed against his cheek and

down against the side of his neck. The moisture on her face ran

down upon his in warm streams.

?Of course I?ll marry you,? she cried softly. ?You?ve kept

me waiting to hear that long enough.?

He rocked her in his arms.

?I didn?t know if I was going to be able to ask you tonight,?

he whispered. ?I don?t have a ring for you right now or anything

like that. But I promise to always love you...I?m just sorry I

couldn?t have done this the right way.?

She laughed in spite of her tears.

?I don?t care about the ring, Ranma. Your promise means

everything to me.?

She gave him a crushing squeeze.

?Oh I love you so much,? she whispered.

Fyodor knew a tender moment when he saw one. So he let

the lovers have theirs before he acted. As they broke from a

heartbreakingly intimate kiss he gave the signal.

Ranma panted for breath as he moved forward to kiss Akane

again. The icy jet of water that struck him in the face wasn?t enough

to effect his transformation, but seemed to knock him off his feet.

He stumbled off balance and slurred a drunken curse as his world

warped around him.

Akane gasped in fright and alarm as she stumbled back with

growing dizziness. She tried to call Ranma?s name, to warn him

about the darkly dressed men who grabbed at him. Her voice

wouldn?t come.

Ranma saw them and knew instantly that it was the Russians

Nabiki had warned them about. With all of his fighting focus he

lashed out his foot in a roundhouse kick that spun the closest of

them around like a top. The man staggered back choking on blood

and not so surgically extracted teeth.

?Nanosyiet padyez snova!? Fyodor barked. He couldn?t believe

the man was still standing, let alone able to fight.

Another jet of icy liquid splashed across Ranma?s face. The

world crushed down upon him. His knees buckled and the

overwhelming flavor of garlic flooded into his mouth. He saw

Akane laying on the sidewalk through tearing eyes and grit his

teeth against the vertigo to stand.

Another man grappled with him from behind. He reached

over his shoulder, grabbed the man by his ears and flipped him

onto the ground with a guttural snarl. A hand slashed down to the

man?s throat and crushed his larynx.

?Snova!? Fyodor bellowed.

Ranma just dodged clear of the sparkling line of fluid, catching

a bit more across the ear before ripping into another man with a

flurry of blows. The man staggered back breathless. The others

kept their distance, completely amazed.

Ranma stumbled to Akane and tried to pick her up. He couldn?t

tell if she was alive or dead, and doubtless his addled brain wouldn?t

have known the difference. Tears spilled down his face as he fought

the blackness that threatened with all his might.

?SNOVA!? Fyodor yelled a second time.

?Ihzkutcheno! Tabl blyiet padyez!? The man with the DMSO

cocktail bottle protested.

?SNOVA!!!?

The man gave Ranma another jet of the drug.

Ranma sunk to his knees. His brain seemed ready to implode.

The blackness clawed its way into his mind, consuming him. The

sight of Akane lying before him was the last thing he saw before

he slumped over her still form.

?Eto zakon?chyelez,? Fyodor grumbled.

?Uhzye vreemya,? the DMSO man agreed.

A black four door Mercedes pulled up a few yards away.

Fyodor got inside as a man gathered up Ranma?s body. The

others picked up their fallen comrades. The last of them went

to get Akane.

?HOLD, VILLAINS!!!? Tatewaki Kuno cried, his sword

gleaming in the moonlight. Hiro had his Sig Sauer P-220 locked

and loaded in his hand as he leaped over a hedgerow to get to them.

Nabiki followed up behind, directing the Prince?s security men who

lagged far behind with her cries.

The Russians got Ranma?s body inside the car before Hiro

could get a shot or Kuno get close enough to strike. The man

reaching hurriedly for Akane wasn?t so fortunate. He looked up

in time to see Hiro level the Sig at him from a distance of ten yards.

?Don?t you touch her!? He screamed in heartsick rage.

The Sig barked seven times in rapid succession.

Seven .45 caliber 230-grain hydrashoks slammed into the man

as he tried to dodge clear. He was wearing kevlar armor panels

beneath his tuxedo, but two rounds caught him in the armpit and

a third slammed into the side of his skull. What was left of his

head lolled sickeningly onto a bloody shoulder as he fell to his

knees and then pitched over face first with a burbling grunt.

Hiro jacked his spare magazine into the Sig on the run as he

fell over Akane?s body to protect her. Kuno leaped over the

twitching corpse of the fallen Russian and charged the Mercedes.

The gunfire had galvanized the security force into action, and

whistles shrilled and flashlight beams bobbed furiously as men

came at the run.

Fyodor couldn?t believe he was seeing the very same samurai

lunatic he had chased clear across the southern Ukraine now

coming at his car with his sword on high. He would have loved

to have stayed and killed him, but the Prince?s men were almost

on top of them. He barked out stern orders, and a man leaned

out of the window with an AK-74. The Mercedes began to

accelerate away.

?Cowards!? Tatewaki Kuno raged.

?Kuno, look out!? Hiro shouted. He began firing at the Mercedes

to spoil the rifleman?s aim. Orange sparks flashed along the body

panels as his bullets smashed into armor.

The rifleman cut loose with the full magazine. Between the

bucking car and Hiro?s gunfire his burst went wide. Bullets chewed

through trees, sent storms of grass and dirt flying around Kuno,

and geysered a shower of sparks as the remainder of the burst

ripped into the sidewalk around Nabiki. Kuno kept up the futile

chase until he heard her cry out. Then he spun on his heels and

ran to her side.

The Mercedes sped off into the night.

Nabiki lay on the grass in tears. Kuno lifted her up into his

arms to see if she was hurt. She fell into his embrace sobbing

bitterly.

?Nabiki, art thou injured?? He asked her worriedly.

?No I?m not!? She replied with another halting series of sobs.

?Ranma?s gone!? She fell back into his chest. ?Oh Akane...?

Hiro wiped away a tear of his own. He holstered the pistol and

picked up Akane as gently as he could. She was alive, but so

deeply unconscious that he couldn?t rouse her.

?Bastards...? he said bitterly.

Professor McFogg, Clay, Ferguson, Doctor Casimir, Prince

Rainier and his men arrived not a minute later. Anazali and

Aerandir were hot on their heels. The Prince?s men began

searching the area for more intruders. There was only the man

Hiro had shot to death.

Hiro explained to them what had happened. Nabiki was

inconsolate, crying in Kuno?s arms. Akane was being tended to

by EMT trained bodyguards until additional medical help could

arrive. Attempts were being made to seal off the borders, but

Monaco was such a small country that it was more than likely that

the kidnappers were already in France or out to sea.

? This is an outrage! ? Prince Rainier bellowed. ? There will

be hell to pay for this! ?

? You can?t do that your Highness, ? Doctor Casimir said

calmly.

? And why not, Grigory?! ? He shot back angrily.

? I know who did this your Highness, ? he replied. ? This

was not sanctioned by the Russian Government. It was a private

concern. They will be likely hiding under some diplomatic

umbrella, but if you go into the open with this, they will kill the

boy and deny everything to protect themselves. ?

? What are you saying, Grigory? ? McFogg asked him.

? I can find out where they are taking the boy, ? Casimir said.

? It may be possible to affect a rescue, but only if we don?t make

an official protest of this. As I said, they will kill the boy and deny

everything. Even if we prove them responsible, Ranma will still be

dead... Balthazar, I divorce myself from my organization. I wish

to join yours. I cannot be party to such actions. ?

? It?s not the way I wanted this to happen, but your support

is welcomed. ? McFogg offered his hand, and Doctor Casimir

shook it firmly.

? I too pledge whatever support I can offer in this. This

insulting heinous crime goes beyond all bounds. ? The Prince of

Monaco declared. ? It sickens me. ?

Hiro looked up to them. ? If you go after him, you can count

me in. ?

? Myself as well, ? Kuno declared. ? Tatewaki Kuno repays

his debts. ?

McFogg turned to Ferguson. ? Get Durango over here at once.

I feel we shall need to enlist his services. ?

The assembled party began to make their way slowly and sadly

back to the palace. A kind of numbing cold bit into their hearts

which even in their anger and rage they could not burn away.

Hiro looked to Akane, who was still asleep and tensed for the

blow she would receive when she learned Ranma was gone.

Nabiki was still weeping softly, both for Ranma and for Akane.

Kuno held her close to him, but could not comfort her more than

in the offering of his warmth.

Anazali cast a hateful glance to Aerandir. Even she had shed

tears over the disaster that had befallen them.

?Very clever,? she told him bitterly.

?What are you talking about??

?Keeping me occupied while your uncle?s lackeys made their

move. Very clever.?

Aerandir glared back at her. ?Nothing could be farther from

the truth! I did no such thing!?

?Then I suggest you do everything in your power to get Ranma

Saotome back safe and sound to his fianc饬 or you will become

the enemy of us all.?

Aerandir looked away from her.

?Very well...?

And damn my uncle to hell...

End of Part Seven

Yes, I am a vicious heartless bastard. I freely admit it.

Author?s notes:

1) Fiddler?s Green is a legendary sailor?s paradise. Think of it as a

mariner?s Shangri La. Most of Aerandir?s crew is from Fiddler?s

Green via Davey Jones? Locker.

(Speaking of which, are there any crusty Shellbacks out there?)

2) If Rainier III would please excuse the liberties I?ve taken with

him, I would be eternally grateful.

3) I had a great deal of fun writing the Ballroom sequence, and I

hoped you had as much fun reading it. Don?t go getting yourselves

worked up about receiving any invitations to Tatewaki and Nabiki?s

wedding though.

4) I?ve read a lot of ?fics where Ranma pops the question to Akane

and then gives her the ring that her mother wore. (Courtesy of the

always helpful Soun Tendo.) While I think that is a very romantic

notion, I wanted Ranma to ask her with nothing more to give to

her than himself. (Again, don?t expect any invitations to their

wedding either... At least not in this fanfic story.)

5) Yes I had to be a bastard and kidnap Ranma after he proposed.

It could have been worse. I originally planned to have Fyodor attack

just before he can ask, but at just the point where Akane knows

what he?s going to say. (How?s that for mean?)

Free The Nukes!


	8. Chapter 8

J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

CHASING THE WIND

Part Eight: At What Price Ranma

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man,

Fission Park 1/2 is the creation and

Property of Rumiko Takahashi and

Shogakukan/KITTY TV/VIZ.

Synopsis

Ranma and Akane are caught in a science experiment in Nerima that

affects their ki. They experience terrible nightmares and lose their

fighting focus. Neither can get any sleep without being in close proximity

with the other. They call upon the scientists to help them through Ranma's

friend from the Second Korean War, Hiro Ohata. Hiro works for Professor

Balthazar McFogg, the leader of the scientists, as a kind of 'Man Friday.'

Hiro sends them to England where they become embroiled in a worldwide

search for electromagnetic 'events' like the one that affected them in

Nerima. In chasing these events they hope to find a cure, but what they do

find is that there is more going on than they ever imagined.

Ranma meets a mysterious woman named Anazali, who is following them.

She claims to be their friend, and hints that the end of their search will

not only cure their ki problems, but may also end Ranma's Jusenkyo curse.

They receive a vision during the event in Scotland that takes them to Granada,

Spain. From there they experience the next event, and a very disturbing vision

hinting not only of the end of their blossoming relationship, but of a world

wide disaster as well.

Ukyo, Kuno, and Nabiki are kidnapped by agents working for Ivan Tarchenko,

an assistant of a second research group that is studying these events. They are

taken to a dacha outside of Odessa, where Ukyo is tortured. Kuno breaks them

free and they flee across the southern Ukraine. Tarchenko sends a group of men

to pursue them.

They are rescued from their pursuer, a vicious man named Fyodor, by a

stranger, who takes them to a ship belonging to his brother. His brother, named

Aerandir, is no less unusual, and he sails them to an island in the Aegean sea

to stay with his uncle.

Aerandir reveals to them that he is an 8000 year old descendant of an

ancient people whose land was destroyed by forces similar to the event the

scientists are looking for. He explains to them the history of his people and

that if steps are not taken, a second disaster will befall the Earth.

Ranma and Akane in the company of Professor McFogg's research group come

to Monaco for the Prince's Charity Ball. Aerandir leaves his uncle, taking

Nabiki and Kuno with him, and sails to Monaco. Doctor Casimir appears as well,

hoping to talk to McFogg and the Wayfinders, Ranma and Akane. They are all

brought together at the Charity Ball, including Fyodor, who has his own agenda.

Ranma proposes to Akane that night, but before they can share their joyous

announcement with anyone, Fyodor and his agents attack. Hiro and Kuno try to

stop Fyodor, but succeed only in killing one of his men and rescuing Akane.

Ranma is taken away into the night.

Chapter One

Ivan Tarchenko looked through the soundproof glass window to the

examination table where Ranma Saotome lay. He was unconscious and strapped

down with thick leather thongs. Several men in white lab coats hovered over

him, monitoring his vital functions. A large gas-plasma display over the

table projected a series of Electroencephalogram (EEG) waveforms in both

real-time and a scaled time-index format simultaneously. A little over a

hundred electrode leads were glued to various points on his head and base

of his neck, trailing to the EEG processor.

Fyodor entered the side room where Tarchenko stood.

"I see that 'Bronze Horseman' wasn't quite a success," he observed to

the huge Ukrainian.

"There were complications," Fyodor admitted.

"Quite correct, Fyodor. Two agents dead, a third with a ruptured

liver that isn't expected to survive the week, a fourth who will have to

live on broth and gelatin for the next six weeks while his jaw heals enough

to support upper and lower dental prosthesis. Yes, I quite agree there were

complications."

He gestured to the window. His finger pointed directly to Ranma.

"Not the least of which is that I only see Yevgeny lying in there."

Fyodor swallowed.

"Where is his beloved Parasha?" Tarchenko asked sternly.

"We were unable to escape with her. We were unaware that they enjoyed

the support and protection of the Prince."

"It was your job to know such things!"

"Authorization was given at the very last minute!" Fyodor thundered.

"Had you ordered me to act in Spain where we had set up detailed surveillance

and the use of indigenous support -to say nothing of the lack of security

around them, your precious 'Bronze Horseman' scheme would have worked!

Instead you order me into a desperate unrehearsed extraction against

formidable opposition!"

"It is of little matter now," Tarchenko sighed, his demeanor distant

and cool. "A second attempt would be too risky from a political standpoint.

The Prince of Monaco may be restraining himself for the moment, but I do not

think he will a second time."

Fyodor seethed a little more.

"Calm yourself, Fyodor."

"I find it difficult under the circumstances."

"Did you find your remuneration to your liking?"

"It is the only reason I am still here, Ivan Mikhailyvich."

"Good. I may still have some work for you then."

Fyodor raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Fyodor. Work more suited to your talents. Far less delicate

work than I've asked of you in the recent past."

"Who do you want me to kill?"

"Patience Fyodor. Not yet. I shall contact you. In the meantime enjoy

your money."

Fyodor grunted once and stared down at Tarchenko with hard dark eyes.

Then he turned and left the room. A middle-aged man in a lab coat carrying

a clipboard entered not long after.

"Ah, Doctor Pulatski. What news?"

Pulatski consulted his clipboard.

"The subject is a Japanese male, aged approximately 18 to 21 years.

He is is well nourished and well developed, indicative of regular intensive

physical conditioning. He is in a barbiturate induced state of unconsciousness,

time approximately nine hours. He is normalocephalic, and stable, with no

acute traumas. Preliminary blood work indicates that he was exposed to enough

Nembutal to drop a bull elephant, and I'm told it was necessary to affect

extraction without further casualties to the team. Other than that, the subject

is clear of steroids, narcotics, alcohol, and nicotine."

"In layman's terms?"

The doctor gestured to Ranma through the glass.

"You've got a young healthy clean-living Japanese man in there who is as

strong as an ox and requires dangerous levels of intramuscular barbiturates

to put him down."

"I understand the dangers of the drugs, but what can you tell me from a

more, shall we say, esoteric viewpoint?"

The doctor understood immediately what Tarchenko referred to. That was

the reason he was here.

"His EEG's normal for a man in drug induced narcosis. If you want any

more answers you'll have to let him dry out. I can't administer the

multiphasic personality inventory or any kind of intelligence examinations

with him doped up. I recommend the immediate suspension of his Diprivan

injections."

"That may be dangerous, Doctor, for reasons you have already pointed

out."

"You can still restrain him physically, but I need him coherent for my

tests."

Tarchenko nodded.

"I see... Very well, Doctor, do what you must. But see to it that he

is well restrained."

The doctor agreed with a murmur.

"May I make an alternative suggestion?"

Tarchenko was willing to hear what the doctor had to say.

"Go on."

"The subject is closely attached to a woman, a fianc饠or some sort of

lover. As he has been unconscious since his extraction, he is unaware that

we do not have her in our possession."

Tarchenko smiled evilly.

"I see where you are going with this. Yes, I'm sure if we convinced

him that his cooperation was necessary for the well being of his fianc饬

he would be most compliant."

"I shall see that he is made aware of his circumstances when he

regains consciousness."

"How long will that take?"

"A few hours at the most. His body is proving to be quite resistant to

the drugs."

It was the third day since Ranma had been taken, and still there

was no word on his whereabouts. McFogg's group had taken up

residence in the Palace, where Akane could be protected from a

second kidnapping attempt. In addition to the Prince's men, Nabiki

and Hiro alternated their watch over her, but she remained

withdrawn and silent. The nightmares had also returned without

Ranma's proximity, and she was physically and emotionally a wreck.

Thus far they had been following Doctor Casimir's advice, and

had made no official recognition that the events of that terrible night

had even happened. At the Prince's insistence, the police had

dropped their investigation into the kidnapping, and into a possible

manslaughter charge against Hiro Ohata for the death of Fyodor's

agent. It was fairly obvious that you couldn't acknowledge one

event without the other, and if there was no kidnapping, then

there could be no manslaughter related to that kidnapping. The

luckless agent was being cremated that very day. No autopsy had

been performed, and no one had come asking for the remains. It

was if the man never existed.

That suited Hiro well enough. If he had his way, there would

have been a few more John Does on their way to anonymous

graves via the state funeral home. He paced moodily outside

Akane's room deep in thought.

" They should have learned something by now, " he muttered.

" Spook work always takes time, " Heironymous Durango

replied from a heavy upholstered chair opposite him. " Pacing isn't

going to get anything done faster. "

" I can't help it, " Hiro said bitterly. " I just feel so helpless. "

He sunk against the wall and slid down, clenching his fists tight.

"I was supposed to protect them!" He hissed to himself.

Durango looked across the hall to Hiro, who now sat on the

floor and stewed.

" Don't worry. We'll find him. And then it's pay-back time. "

Hiro looked up at Durango. He said nothing, but the fire in his

eyes spoke volumes.

Aerandir walked down the hall towards them. Anazali and Nabiki

were with him. Hiro wasn't sure what to make of the tall man with

the pale hair and the sea-colored eyes. Nabiki had told him a little

about Aerandir, but Hiro still had his misgivings. Anazali only ranked

slightly higher on his list of people he could trust.

One of the Prince's men stopped them, but when Aerandir

identified himself he was allowed to pass. He stepped up to the

door and waited. Hiro looked up at him.

Aerandir's face was calm as he addressed Hiro.

"Mister Ohata, may I speak with Akane?"

"Something tells me I wouldn't be able to stop you," Hiro replied.

Aerandir offered him a nod of agreement.

"Be that as it may, I do wish to have your approval."

Hiro stood. "Sure. Follow me."

He knocked at the door and entered.

Akane was standing at the window, looking out to the sea.

Merchant ships plied the Mediterranean beyond the window. Tall

masted sailing yachts darted between the bulky freighters and

tankers.

She was still in a nightgown. The bed next to her was unmade.

When she turned around to face them Hiro felt his heart sink to

behold her. She was weary beyond the words it would take to

describe her. Weary and heartsick and emotionally spent. She

didn't have a tear left in her, but still her eyes ached to shed more.

"Hello Akane," Aerandir greeted pleasantly. "I'm told you're

having trouble sleeping?"

Akane managed a short, bitter laugh.

"I can help you perhaps," he said soothingly. "If you would

permit me, of course."

"I can't sleep," she replied in a hoarse voice. "The nightmares...

Without Ranma close by, the nightmares return. It's too much for

me."

"Aerandir can help you sleep, dear." It was Anazali who said

this to her. "He can keep the nightmares from you."

"Please let him help you sis," Nabiki added.

Akane did want to sleep. Desperately. But the terror of those

nightmares she had experienced were far worse than any she had

endured in Nerima. Now that Ranma had pledged to share his very

life with her, the thought of losing him forever was beyond endurance.

Her nightmares reflected that loss with a dull edged pain that had

sawed pitilessly through her soul in the last three days.

"I can't," she sobbed. Hiro was ready to kick them all out and

force them to leave her alone. At least then it would lessen the pain

that their presence was inflicting upon her. Aerandir nodded sadly,

then pulled his flute from his tunic.

Nabiki's songbirds suddenly flew through the door and alighted

upon her shoulder. Nabiki looked to them, and they sang brightly

for her. In spite of herself, Akane smiled.

Aerandir offered a hand to Akane, and begged that she sit upon

the bed. "Very well then, I won't force you to sleep. Allow me

instead to sing for you, that I may ease your worries."

Akane found that she couldn't resist him. She sat back on the

bed and waited for him to begin. Aerandir looked to the little

songbirds who perched upon Nabiki's shoulder, and they trilled in

reply. He put the flute to his lips, and blew a soft haunting note.

The birds had their key, and began to sing.

Aerandir joined them, and they fell into harmony.

"What skies upon the east do glow

That sound the harken to sun's warm grace

To make the new world stir and grow

And brings light to shine upon man's face

Farewell to ice and bitter cold

Abjure the snow and banish the waste

Bring forth the rays that shine like gold

Arise ye men, Spring's sweet dew to taste."

As Aerandir sang, Akane began to sink down upon the bed.

Her eyes became heavy and she started to drift away. The song

was an ancient one, from an epic that detailed the rise of the Maiar.

Hiro watched dumbfounded at Aerandir as he began another song:

a lullaby to the accompaniment of the songbirds, and of Anazali

who joined him, though her voice was in the tongue of the Maiar.

"Sing we now sweetly and dreams let us weave her,

Wind her in slumber and there let us leave her!

The lady does sleepeth, now light be her heart!

Love is her armor, we are her shield,

Of all that we wish her, our hopes are revealed:

Never from her light, nor love shall she part!

Sing we now sweetly and dreams let us weave her,

Wind her in slumber and there let us leave her!"

Akane was now fast asleep. Aerandir placed a hand softly upon

her brow and whispered something in her ear. She murmured a

reply and sank back into the bed with a slight smile pursed upon

her lips. The songbirds fell silent upon Nabiki's shoulder.

The mariner sank back upon a chair and rubbed at his temple.

He looked suddenly very tired and at once showed perhaps a sign

of his vast age. Anazali gave him the fondest smile then and retired

from the room.

"You should see to her Mister Ohata," Aerandir said to him.

Hiro shook his head as if awakening from a dream. He saw that

Akane was slumbering peacefully, the first time he had seen her do

so in three days. With the greatest care he lifted the sheets from the

bed and set her beneath them. Nabiki was nearly bursting with relief.

She leaned over and kissed Aerandir's brow.

"Thank you Aerandir," she said to him.

"As always; I am your servant, Nabiki."

He rubbed at his temple again. "She will sleep very deeply, free

from the imbalances to her essence which have brought her such

torment. I have lent her a bit of my own to carry her through this

day, and I have given her a very special dream as well. When she

awakens tomorrow morning she will be restored to health."

Hiro looked to Aerandir. His opinion of the man had just grown

by an order of magnitude. Then he returned his attention to Akane,

and watched over her. It was in some small way a redress for having

failed them once.

"Look after her well, Mister Ohata," Aerandir admonished him

as he rose from the chair. "I shall retire to Kelebros. Look for me

there if any should need me."

Nabiki stopped him gently with a hand at his arm. When he

turned to see what she wanted, she cocked her head to the

songbirds that were now silent on her shoulder.

"I thought you didn't like them, so how did you get them to

cooperate like that with the songs?"

"I have reached an understanding with them," he replied. "In

return for their silence to my uncle, I continue to allow them to be

near you. They're rather fond of you actually, so I think we have

nothing to worry about."

This was still all so weird for her, but when he told her that

the songbirds liked her, she became very pleased with the idea.

It reinforced her notion that they were hers, sort of. Sensing this,

the birds suddenly twittered affectionately in her ear.

"Do they have names?" She found herself asking him.

Aerandir nodded.

"Their personal names to each other do not translate very well

I'm afraid. My uncle calls them Innael, Birathiel, and Gliredhel."

The three birds each chirped at the mention of their name

"They are named for my uncle's three sisters who perished with

the drowning of Maianar. He would sometimes speak to me about

them and their beautiful singing voices, but I'm afraid these three

birds are all that I will ever know of them... My uncle granted them

a remarkable span of years."

Nabiki let him go after that. She didn't have anything she could

say in reply. Innael took wing then and flew over to the headboard

of the bed where Akane slept. Birathiel and Gliredhel chirped once

and then joined their sister. Together on the headboard they began

to sing very softly to Akane, and Nabiki beamed at them.

Hiro watched all of this still a little confused. In any event he was

happy to see Akane resting peacefully and the sight of Nabiki and

her wondrous songbirds made him feel as if they had a powerful

ally in the mariner named Aerandir. For the first time since Ranma's

abduction, he felt hope.

"Are you going to stay here awhile?" He asked Nabiki.

Nabiki nodded and sat down to listen to the birds and to watch

over her baby sister.

"I was going to see about lunch. Would you like anything?" He

continued.

"If you would please. That would be nice." She had found herself

liking Hiro even though it could be argued that he and his scientist

employers had gotten them in this mess in the first place.

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Hiro."

Hiro nodded and got up on his feet. He glanced once at Akane

and left the room.

Tatewaki Kuno appeared some time later. Nabiki gestured for

him to be silent, and pointed to Akane's sleeping form. Kuno began

to beam with happiness.

"Hello Kuno-baby," she said to him quietly.

Kuno was relieved that she hadn't called him 'Tate-chan'

again. To hear that name from her lips confused him so. That

it was presumption beyond forgiveness was certain, but why

he had been unable to reproach her for such familiarity was

the source of his confusion. He settled for a short nod of

acknowledgment.

"I see the lovely Akane is at last within the sheltering arms of

Morpheus," he observed.

"Aerandir sang her a lullaby. She went right out."

Kuno nodded sagely.

After that, their store of small talk was exhausted.

They stood or sat in silence. The only sounds in the room were

the soft singing of Nabiki's birds, the deep even breaths Akane took,

and the ticking of a clock on the mantle of the fireplace. It was

almost laughable, except that the two of them were too busy

thinking about others things to notice how quiet the room had

become.

Nabiki was still trying to figure out what had been going through

her head when she engaged Kuno in that kiss. It was a stupid thing

to do, she told herself. You're lucky he didn't attach himself

to you on the spot.

She wanted to chalk it up to the romance of the moment.

Attaching that rationalization to her thoughts wasn't coming very

easy though. She thought back to that night, and their kiss. She

had never been kissed like that before. Ever. It felt so good to be

loved like that, even if just for a few moments. Even by Tatewaki

Kuno.

Her eyes drifted over to Kuno, who stood solemnly watching

over Akane. There wasn't any of the usual adoration in his eyes

when he looked at Akane, meaning that he was in his Protector

mode again. It was the mantle he had assumed over Ukyo and

herself when they had escaped from the Russians.

Had all of that just been part of the little dramas he played

out in his head? She suddenly wondered. She thought of how

caring and strong he had been for the three of them. How open he

had been with her as they walked for many kilometers across the

southern Ukraine. It was so unlike him that it had to be genuine.

She laughed quietly to herself about how ridiculous that sounded.

One way to find out...

She had to know. Even if she wasn't sure she wanted to find

out. She gave herself a mental kick in the rear and pressed on.

Timid was an adjective that did not apply to Nabiki Tendo, and

she wasn't going to have that sentiment proved wrong.

She cleared her throat for attention.

"Hey Kuno-baby," she said to him.

Tatewaki Kuno was jolted out of his reflection and cast a

questioning glance in her direction.

"Yes Nabiki?" He asked.

Yes Nabiki-? Not 'Yes Nabiki Tendo?'

All of a sudden she felt very nervous. Maybe Kuno was a

little hung up on her. She mustered her cool again and rose to her

feet.

"I wanted to talk to you about the other night," she began. It

was true enough: they hadn't said a word about it to each other

since then. She had downplayed it in her own mind, and Kuno was

trying his best to deny that it had ever happened.

"Yes Nabiki?" He seemed quite oblivious to her intentions.

She walked over to him. He watched her approach with a

casual eye but said nothing. When she was standing before him

and looking up into his eyes he began to cross his arms over his

chest.

She stopped him with a hand on his arm and brought it down

to his side, never taking her eyes off his. Her gall was astounding,

even if Kuno expected as much from her. He began to say

something, but Nabiki cut him off.

"I want to know if what happened between us was just a heat

of the moment thing, or if there was more to it."

"Whatever are you talking about, Nabiki Tendo?" Kuno replied,

just a hint of defensiveness in his voice.

How can he be so stubbornly ignorant? Nabiki railed

inwardly. Just how big is that fantasy world of his?

"I'm talking about this," she said sternly.

She stood up on her toes and kissed him warmly, throwing her

arms around his neck and pulling herself close to him. She was

about to break the kiss when it seemed he wasn't going to respond,

but then his arms went around her and he deepened their embrace.

Then she broke the kiss.

She bobbed back down on her heels and looked at him for a

minute. He looked a little surprised, and did she dare think hurt

by her sudden suspension of affection? She turned her back to

him and returned to her chair.

"Thanks Kuno-baby, that's all I wanted to know."

Tatewaki Kuno stood paralyzed in the middle of the room.

When at last he could move he spared a single guilty look to Akane,

then a confused one for Nabiki. Nabiki watched him with sharp

eyes, taking in his distress.

It serves him right for being such an insensitive clod about the

whole affair.

"If you're looking for poetic words of undying love to Akane,

you had best save your breath Kuno-baby," she told him after he

turned longing eyes to her sleeping sister.

He didn't reply, he just watched Akane and sighed.

"Ranma proposed to her that night," Nabiki went on. "She said

'yes'."

Kuno sighed again. He had heard vicious rumors to this effect,

but the tone of Nabiki's voice told him that the rumors were true.

It was one thing to be trapped in an arranged marriage and still pine

for one's true love. It was another to commit to that marriage out

of one's own free will. As disgusting and terrible as being the wife

of the contemptible Ranma Saotome seemed to him, he realized

that Akane Tendo was forever lost to him.

He was an honorable man. As much as he disliked Saotome

(and even more so for finally stealing Akane away from him), he

would abide by their engagement. Unless he could prove that

Saotome had used some sort of coercion, their engagement was

valid, and he would do what he could for Akane that she would be

happy.

Nabiki could see the sudden sad turn in Kuno's expression. It

had gone beyond the noble melancholy he affected when things

didn't go his way, it was grievous injury. She felt very sorry for

him then. It bothered her to see him that way.

Suddenly it seemed as if a light bulb lit up above his head.

Granted, it was only a twenty watt bulb, but something had

instantly jerked him out of his sad reflection and put an ever

growing smile on his face. His eyes took on that mad glow that

occurred when his ego ballooned out of control. Nabiki tensed in

her chair, waiting for him to spill forth whatever epiphany he had.

"If Akane Tendo be the fianc饠of the accursed Saotome of

her own will, then he has no more hold upon the Pig-Tailed Girl!

At last this cup has passed from me! My way is clear! Oh Love

reveals her true face at last!"

He struck a dramatic pose and raised his sword on high. Tears

streamed down his face.

" 'Let not my love be call'd idolatry,

Nor my beloved as an idol show,

Since all alike are my songs and praises be

To one, of one, still such, and ever so.

Kind is my love today, tomorrow kind,

Still constant in a wondrous excellence;

Therefore my verse to consistency confined,

One thing expressing, leaves out difference.

'Fair, kind, and true,' is all my argument,

'Fair, kind, and true,' varying to other words;

And in this change is my invention spent,

Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.

'Fair, kind, and true,' have often lived alone,

Which three till now never kept seat in one.'"

The three songbirds stopped their quiet lullaby for Akane and

turned their attention to Kuno. Even for birds, the look they gave

him was one of alarm for his madness. Part of Nabiki wanted to

scream at him. The other part, the one still in control, instead

offered him a fond smile.

"I'm glad you worked this out Kuno-baby," she told him.

"Oh would that this adventure was of its conclusion reached!"

He cried in rare form. "That I may return to bask in the sweet glow

of the Pig-Tailed Girl's love!"

With that he started for the door, bowing low once for Akane,

who continued to sleep oblivious to Kuno's passionate outburst,

before leaving.

Nabiki shook her head sadly.

Oh Tate-chan, you are so hopeless...

Hiro appeared with a knock at the door. He had a wheeled tray

with lunch at his side. He pushed the tray into the room quietly for

fear of awakening Akane.

"Don't worry about the noise, Hiro," Nabiki said to him. "Kuno

was just in here bellowing, and she didn't move a muscle."

"I thought I heard a familiar voice from down the hall.

Shakespeare?"

Nabiki gave him a knowing smile. "One of the stanzas from the

Sonnets I believe."

"That wasn't hard to guess," Hiro said flatly. He gestured to the

tray. "Any preferences?"

Nabiki found that she didn't have much of an appetite anymore,

but gamely reached for a bowl of consomm頡nd a piece of bread

from the basket to keep up appearances.

Chapter Two

Ranma glared at the man who had introduced himself as Ivan.

The Russian for his part sat calmly across a table from him while a

few men in lab coats finished last minute touches on the array of

sensory gear emplaced around the martial artist. Doctor Pulatski

and an unkempt gentleman in a dirty sweater and stained trousers

watched from the corner of the room. A man acting as a translator

took his place by Tarchenko's side.

Ranma had a splitting headache, no doubt the side effects of

whatever they had dosed him with in Monaco. Ever since his

awakening he had been questioned, prodded, probed, scanned,

and in general turned into their guinea pig. That was three days ago.

He recognized some of the tests they had performed on him as

being similar to ones McFogg's researchers had used on himself

and Akane when they first came to London. McFogg's men had

been a bit more civil about it than the Russians.

He looked around him. He was in the examination room, a

short walk from his windowless holding cell. He had no idea

where in the world he was, but had the sinking feeling it wasn't

anywhere near Monaco.

" Are we comfortable? " Tarchenko asked. The translator

repeated the question in Japanese.

"Go fuck yourself," Ranma replied curtly.

" Tut tut, Mister Saotome, that's no way to speak to someone

who literally holds your fianc饧s life in his hands. "

Ranma took the translator's words with a snarl, trying to leap

up out of his chair. For a moment in his rage he had forgotten that

he was bound in a straight-jacket and chained down to the floor.

They had learned about his prodigious strength soon after he had

regained consciousness. An agent was learning to live with one arm

broken backwards at the elbow for his carelessness.

Tarchenko made a gesture to the straight-jacket.

" Are we quite finished yet? "

"Let me see that Akane's all right and I will be!"

" You are just going to have to take my word for her well

being, " Tarchenko replied. " By now you realize what terrible

things are in our power to do to her if you don't cooperate. Know

that I am quite capable of turning these men loose upon her. "

Tarchenko gestured to Ranma's three hulking playmates for

the last three days. They were the ones who were for a lack of a

better term his handlers. They were ones who moved him from

his cell to the examination room and back again, who lashed him

down and beat him whenever they felt he wasn't cooperating.

Which was often. Ranma's body in fact was a wealth of welts,

bruises, and contusions.

Ranma wasn't all that sure they had Akane anymore. Before

he blacked out he had heard Hiro and Kuno's voices approaching.

It was possible that they could have rescued her, and that the

Russian was just bluffing. On the other hand there was no way

he was going to take any chances with Akane's life.

" Let's begin the interview, shall we? " Tarchenko asked.

Instruments flicked on with hums and whirs. A tape recorder was

switched on. Ranma could see other men enter the room in the

shadows behind Tarchenko.

When the 'interview' was over, Ranma's handlers dragged his

dazed body out of the examination room and to his holding cell.

The beatings hadn't been very bad, it was just that he hadn't been

getting any sleep because of the nightmares. The questions Ivan

had asked were absolutely nonsensical. They had nothing to do

with McFogg's group, or the events, or how Ranma could sense

them. Nevertheless the assembled interrogators took them quite

seriously, and forced him to answer with the first thing that came

to mind.

The cell door swung open and he was thrown inside. He

wished they would take the straight-jacket off so he could move

his arms. The leg irons they gave him were digging into the flesh

of his ankles. What was left of his tuxedo was mostly tatters.

The door slammed shut and he was in darkness again. He felt

his way to the foam mattress in the corner and dragged himself

onto it. He had no desire to sleep, even though he was exhausted.

The nightmares would come for him if he slept.

He sobbed just once before catching himself. His tears weren't

for himself, they were for Akane. Even if the Russians didn't have

her, she would be prey to the nightmares the same as he. The

thought that she was also suffering, no matter where, was a cold

spike through his heart.

"Well, Doctor?" Tarchenko asked.

Pulatski consulted his notes.

"He is only of average intelligence. Personality tests indicate a

strong moral core coupled with an abnormally independent motivational

center. He's tough, opinionated, inflexible, and confrontational. In

addition he has a strong value sense concerning life and the well being

of others -provided they don't conflict with his personal value system.

We had a good example of this during his extraction: he was capable of

killing a man barehanded to protect his fianc饬 and seriously injured

several others.

"Analysis of neural pathways is indicative of advanced motor and

reflex control. That's in keeping with his martial artist profession,

but we've found some other interesting indications as well."

"Go on."

"While his neural architecture is not compliant with accepted

standards of psionic aptitude, his fourth brain structures are highly

developed. There is no corresponding cerebellum enlargement or pons

activity under PET scan, however. Kirlian analysis supports the theory

that while he is capable of focusing large amounts of psionic potential,

he has none of the accepted psionic talents."

"Then he's a latent psychic?" Tarchenko asked.

"No," the unkempt man interjected. "Not at all. He displays no

aptitude for the so-called sensitive talents. No telepathy, no empathic

transference, no precognition, no psychometry. He has a slight Kirlian

awareness, but his index isn't remarkably higher than an average person.

I can sense no parapsionic awareness within him."

"What are you getting at, gentlemen?"

Pulatski fielded this one. "Given separately, his physical aptitude

and his fourth brain development are meaningless. However, when combined

we believe he may be able to gather, focus, and project energy from

himself and his surroundings. That would make him an advanced physical

archetype."

Tarchenko had heard that term before. He'd never seen one in action,

but the stories were fascinating. Men who could perform ridiculous feats

of strength and agility, some who could even project psionic energy

blasts! Now he felt better about keeping his young Japanese prisoner

tightly bound.

"You think he is one?"

"Current evidence supports this conclusion," Pulatski replied.

Tarchenko nodded slowly.

"In regards to his sensitivity to the events. What is his

connection?"

The two men conferred for a moment.

Pulatski spoke up. "We don't have any quantitative evidence to

support any theories, but--"

"--Tell me what you think."

"We don't think that he is, in and of himself, sensitive to these

events. There is an outside influence at work here. We believe that

it may be in part responsible for the traumatic dream states that

plague him in REM sleep."

Tarchenko felt as if they were holding back from him. He would

have none of that.

"There's more to it of course. Do go on."

"It's possible that an outside presence is directing him. Although

we are at a loss to localize such a presence if it exists."

"I see... So his usefulness has reached its end?"

The men understood what Tarchenko was implying.

Pulatski again spoke up. "We would like to observe him for another

two or three days if possible. There is so much we can learn from him

regarding other paranormal fields, that it would be a waste to get rid

of him so soon."

"You must understand my position as well," Tarchenko cautioned.

"Our presence with this young man is making our landlords nervous." He

gestured to the ceiling, where above them was the bustling activity of

the Russian Embassy to France. "I give you forty-eight hours."

"We understand," Pulatski replied. He and the unkempt man known as

Toschev offered good-days and left the examination room.

Doctor Casimir entered the Salon in the early evening with a pile

of papers in his hands and a broad smile upon his face. Professor

McFogg, Prince Rainier, Clay and Ferguson, Heironymous Durango

and D-Day, Hiro, and Kuno were already present. They were

smoking, drinking tea, and conferring among themselves. The

mood in the room was subdued, even angry.

" I have found him! " Casimir cried.

This garnered immediate attention.

" Ranma? " McFogg asked hopefully.

" He's in Paris, " Casimir told them.

" How did you ever discover this, Grigory? " Prince Rainier

asked in wonderment. None of his discreet inquiries with the French

had been successful.

Casimir took a seat in a leather bound chair and reached for the

silver teapot. Only after pouring himself a cup of Earl Grey did he

speak. The room was silent in expectation.

" Tarchenko may have him, but he can't hope to do anything

with him without the assistance of certain specialists, " Casimir

began. " He would need Doctor Vladimir Pulatski- "

" -The leading parapsychologist in the world, " Clay was

quick to interject. It took one to know one.

" And Mikhail Toschev, among others. Toschev is a very

talented psychic who found dubious employment with the Special

Services Section of the KGB. He is a pitiless and cruel man, and

likely fits in with Vanya's group. " Casimir supplied mournfully.

He had never fully trusted Tarchenko, but this betrayal had been

especially difficult to put behind him.

" So how does this tell us where Ranma is? " Hiro asked.

" I'm getting to that boy, patience! As I was saying, Vanya

needs these men to learn anything from Ranma. I made a few

discreet phone calls to some old friends in the establishment and

learned that both of these men and a small research team attached

to them had been themselves recently attached to the Diplomatic

Mission in Paris. It appears that Vanya doesn't yet know that I've

thrown in with your lot, or I suspect he would have taken steps

to restrict my inquiries. "

" So you think this proves anything? " Durango snorted.

" Men like Pulatski and Toschev do not get attached to

Diplomatic units, " Casimir said calmly. " They work in well

funded laboratories. Even if Toschev was in Paris to ply his singular

talents for the Intelligence community, he would not require a full

research staff to do it. "

" I'm sold, " Hiro declared. " Now where in Paris are we

talking? "

" The Russian Embassy I'm afraid, " Casimir replied.

Everyone gave a collective series of curses and groans.

" Hitting a safe house would be one thing, but the goddamn

Embassy? " Durango said bitterly. " That's hairy. Real hairy. "

" Likely the reason they took him there, " Ferguson noted.

Aerandir entered the room with Anazali. The men all stood for

the tall and graceful Maiar woman. Anazali chose to stand at the

far end of the salon, away from the others. Aerandir took a chair

next to the Prince.

"We would like it known that we pledge our support in

rescuing Ranma Saotome," Aerandir declared. Anazali nodded

from across the room.

" We are deeply in your debt Aerandir, " Prince Rainier

replied fondly.

" Well that's all well and good, but we need a plan for this to

work, " Hiro said to them. " We can't just waltz into the Russian

Embassy, find wherever they're hiding him, and spring him without

getting into the middle of serious trouble. "

" A diversion would be good, " Durango announced.

" From your tone I would say you already had an idea for one,

Mister Durango, " the Professor replied.

" You could say that, " he replied. He lit up a Don Diego

Churchill and began to puff away.

It was well past midnight when Nabiki walked into the Salon.

There was a haze of cigar and pipe smoke hanging in the air, and

the remains of sandwiches and other no effort foods were scattered

on tables. Papers, maps, memo pads and other sundries were

likewise scattered about. A servant entered with a large silver

coffee pot on a tray. He set it next to the men as they gathered

around a large table that had been moved from one of the dining

rooms to the salon. A few of them grunted acknowledgment and

poured fresh cups for themselves.

She thumbed through the papers. Most of them were faxes

from all over Europe, but mostly from Paris. One of them looked

suspiciously like a blueprint or technical drawing. For the public

utilities of all things.

Nabiki watched Heironymous Durango as he chewed on the

end of a pencil while he and D-Day pored over a navigational

chart of the local Paris airspace. They wrote down various

communications frequencies, informational squawks, and

beacons on a set of notepads. D-Day checked them with

some other notes they'd taken earlier. Then he began rambling

on about fuel ladders. One of the Prince's men was on a phone

line getting them weather information.

She moved on to the others. Hiro was going over an inventory

of the small arms Durango and D-Day had with them aboard

Bettie's Dare. Kuno meditated in silence because he had little to

offer the group other than his sword.

McFogg was in the middle of a phone call on another line while

one of the Prince's men monitored the line against wiretaps from

equipment housed in a briefcase. Ferguson took down instructions

and notes from McFogg as he relayed information from where

Nabiki presumed to be London. He was puffing away rather

furiously on his pipe as he spoke.

Clay was talking with Aerandir and Anazali in one corner of

the room. He seemed to be detailing some sort of plan to the two

Maiar, who would occasionally shake their heads and correct him

on some point or other. For the most part they seemed to be

agreeing, which made Nabiki feel a little better.

Casimir was on a third line, also being monitored against

wiretap, and speaking in animated Russian with whoever was on

the other side of the line. He jotted down notes and passed them

over to McFogg and Durango. Occasionally the Catalina pilot

would have a question regarding the scientist's sloppy handwriting,

and particularly because some of the notes taken were in Russian.

All of this James Bond stuff was a little overwhelming, even

for a woman who prided herself on being well connected in the

right circles. For a moment she wished Akane was awake just so

she would have someone she could talk to. She watched them

work for awhile. At least the activity indicated that they had some

sort of plan to rescue Ranma from Tarchenko.

" Nabiki, could you be so kind as to come over here please? "

The Professor asked her.

She had barely gotten to know the Professor in the last two

days, but it was easy to see why Ranma and Akane trusted him.

She wondered if she was looking like the fifth wheel that she felt

she was. When she joined him at the table he handed her a notepad

with various scribblings and asked her if she could make a few

phone calls.

It was busy-work, but the alternative was sitting alone and

worrying. She took the notebook and proceeded to the last

available phone line that the Prince's people had hastily installed

in the Salon. She looked over the notes and got to work.

After awhile her old talents of making connections and getting

people to do what she wanted started paying off. Contacts she had

never known before began complying to her wishes as she applied

a little manipulation here, a little promise of grease there. Just like

old times. She looked over to the Professor, who was smiling in

admiration of her efforts, and wondered just what her sister had

told the Professor about her these last few weeks.

Akane awoke just before lunch the next day. She seemed to

look much better than she had the previous day. As Aerandir had

promised, she had suffered no nightmares, but in fact had a rather

pleasant dream featuring Ranma.

Reality asserted itself once again with consciousness. Hiro was

quick to allay her worries by telling her they had found where

Ranma was being kept and that they were going after him that

night. Of course Akane was adamant about going with them.

"Out of the question!" Hiro had protested. "It's too dangerous."

She had argued with him for awhile, then finally relented.

Nabiki wasn't too sure about her sister buckling so easy, but

kept it to herself. Her part in this plan detailed that she leave

with Ferguson and Anazali early that afternoon on a commercial

air flight to set a few things up in Paris. Akane was Hiro's

problem after that.

The PBY-5A Catalina floated alongside the slip as the Monaco

sky began to darken with sunset. Hiro and Kuno loaded the last of

the gear they were bringing with them. D-Day crawled along the

top of the wing, checking that engine and control surface access

panels were securely in place. Aerandir could be seen through the

cockpit canopy talking to Durango as the pilot went through his

preflight checklists. Clay poked his head out of the dorsal hatch

and took a heavy duffel bag from Hiro.

When they had finished stowing everything, Durango asked if

they were ready.

Hiro looked to Kuno, who looked to Clay, who looked to

Aerandir. The mariner was wearing a black cloak and an equally

dark expression. His sword lay over his lap in its scabbard. He

nodded his head.

His reason for joining them was clear. It was likely that his

uncle Sarophan was ultimately behind the Russians, and that one

of his own kind was surreptitiously watching over the Embassy.

He would deal with that threat should it arise. He only hoped he

could stop whoever had been detailed for such an assignment

without killing him.

" Right! " Durango cried. " Cast us off! "

D-Day scrambled over to the little cleat just outside the door

when he was pushed aside by Akane Tendo. She was dressed

in a dark wool pullover sweater and black sweatpants. Black

running shoes completed her outfit. Despite her efforts, the last

thing she looked like was a commando.

" Hey! " D-Day protested. She ignored him.

Akane climbed aboard Bettie's Dare.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hiro asked.

"I'm coming with you," she said matter-of-factly.

"Absolutely not!" Hiro yelled at her. "You are not going with

us! I don't want anything happening to you."

"I'm a martial artist!" Akane yelled back in protest. "I'm

prepared to get hurt!"

Hiro turned crimson. He ripped open his shirt to reveal an ugly

scar to the right of his breastbone. From his pocket he produced a

jagged, halfway unraveled piece of dull grey metal flecked with

copper and thrust it in her face.

"When one of these comes crashing into you at fifteen hundred

feet per second you'll wish all it did was 'hurt'!" He thundered.

Kuno and D-Day were about to step in and calm him down when

Hiro lowered his voice. Although Kuno wouldn't tolerate Hiro's

outburst to Akane under other circumstances, he knew from first

hand experience that the former infantryman and comrade in arms

was correct.

"This thing hit me the day the North Koreans kicked us off our

hill. The same day your friend Gosunkugi got hit. It went in through

my body armor, drilled right through the chicken-plate, and entered

into my chest. From there it grazed my lung, missed my heart by

about three millimeters, gouged a nice groove through the edge of

my spine, and was about halfway out my backside when it hung

up on one of my ribs."

Akane looked with horror at the oblong scar on Hiro's chest.

She tried to imagine what it was like for the jagged piece of metal

in his hand to have gone through him like that. It never occurred

to her that the reason it was so jagged and deformed was

because it had gone through him. Now she understood why

he had been reluctant to take his tank top off at the beach.

"The bullet missed everything important, but I still felt like I

was being turned inside-out," he said in as grim and serious a

voice as he could. "I was in so much pain they had to shoot me

up with morphine just to get me to stop screaming."

He held the spent round up to the light.

"There are going to be hundreds of these little bastards flying

through the air if and when things go wrong. I don't want you

anywhere near them. The only way I ever want you to know

about what it's like to get shot is to hear it from someone else."

"I don't care!" Akane cried. "I'm going and you can't stop me!"

She glared at him with a look that bordered on despair.

Hiro was wounded to see that in her eyes, but his concern for

her overrode any ideas of placating her. He lowered his head

wearily. For a moment she thought he was going to give in.

"Are you going to be doing him any favors if you get yourself

killed?" He hissed angrily at her. He hated himself for being so

mean to her, but goddammit why couldn't she understand?

"I love him!" She protested. "Ranma would move Heaven

and Earth for me if our positions were reversed. Tell me he

wouldn't!"

Hiro couldn't deny that. He'd seen it on a mountain in North

Korea.

"Now it's my turn to do this for him," she said sternly. "I am

going with you."

Hiro was about to take his life into his hands and try and

remove her forcibly from the Catalina when Aerandir stopped

him with a gentle tug of his arm. He turned around to glare at

the mariner. His mouth opened in rebuke. He didn't care what

kind of powers the mariner had, there was no way he would

allow Akane to go.

Aerandir cut him off.

"Let her accompany us Mister Ohata. I sense that her presence

will be very necessary in locating Ranma." He looked to Clay.

"Wouldn't you agree, Mister Clay?"

Clay squinted his eyes at Akane for a moment.

" You may be right Mister Aerandir, " the parapsychologist

replied.

" Excuse me? " Hiro groused.

"Mister Clay and others who are sensitive to such things can

see something very special with Akane. They can use it to locate

Ranma."

"Huh?" Hiro replied, wondering what Aerandir was driving at.

"Mister Clay?" Aerandir gestured to the parapsychologist that

he might explain.

Clay cleared his throat. " I can see a red string floating from

her heart when I concentrate, " he said solemnly. Akane suddenly

blushed furiously at the same time that enormous happiness welled

within her.

" What? "

" I'm what you would call a psychic sensitive, " Clay explained.

" That's why I got into such a controversial field of science as

parapsychology. I don't have a lot of the abilities of most genuine

psychics, but I can see certain things that most people can't. "

" What's a red string got to do with anything? " Hiro protested.

He thought he remembered a little folklore on the subject, but nothing

was coming to him.

" The strongest of loves are bound to each other by discrete

lines of psionic force, too weak to be detected by conventional

electromagnetic instruments like the Kirlian. However, the human

brain can be sensitive enough to sense these lines of force. They

connect to people with very strong bonds. I can follow Akane's

line straight to Ranma if we can get the two close enough. "

" How close is that? " Hiro asked. He could see his attempts

at getting Akane off the seaplane were failing and would argue

anything at this point.

" Perhaps as far as a hundred meters away. I have seen their

force line from such a distance before. "

Akane knew victory when she saw it. She took a seat next to

Aerandir and Kuno and offered him a wicked smile of smug

satisfaction. Hiro clenched his fists tight and stuffed his 'lucky

bullet' in his pocket.

"I don't fucking believe this," he cursed to himself.

Durango called down to them.

" You guys through pissin' and moanin' so we can get this

show on the road? "

"You may proceed at your discretion Mister Durango," Aerandir

replied.

" 'Bout goddamn time. Come on D-Day, let's go. "

D-Day cast them off and secured the door. Then he proceeded

to the cockpit. The supercharged radial piston engines of Bettie's

Dare exploded to life moments later. As the engine noise increased,

the seaplane began to taxi out of the La Condamine marina.

Durango firewalled the engines once they got clear, and the

Catalina lurched into the air minutes later. He brought the plane

into a shallow turn and headed north by northwest, Paris bound.

Hiro retreated to the cockpit because he couldn't stand the thought

of Akane coming with them. It was bad enough that he was scared

about losing his own life, but to lose Akane's was beyond imagining.

" We're talking about 500 nautical miles to Paris, or about three

hours at our present speed, " Durango announced for them. They

were well aware of their time table, but a little reinforcement never

hurt.

Bettie's Dare disappeared into a darkening cloud bank as the

sun sunk over the western horizon.

Chapter Three

Ranma awoke with great gasp for breath. Cold sweat rolled

down his face as he shook away the last vestiges of the nightmare

he had suffered. It was a very familiar one, and he started to

wonder if there was any meaning behind it.

Once again he dreamed that he was fighting people atop the

Eiffel Tower. Akane was there, and she was fighting them too.

Then she was pushed over the side, and he jumped after her,

and together they plummeted straight down. He woke up before

they could hit the ground.

He wiped the sweat away from his eyes. Someone had

eventually prevailed upon his jailers to remove the straight-jacket

during the short periods when he was allowed sleep. Double sets

of manacles took the straight-jacket's place. At least he could move

a little. Perhaps even break them if he tried hard enough.

If Kuno could do it, he thought, remembering back to the

short bit of catching up they'd shared with Nabiki before the Ball.

I gotta be able to do it.

He was almost certain by now that they didn't have Akane in

their clutches. It was a little strange, but he felt as if he would

know if she was around. It didn't feel like it, and the way he

was treated today suggested that it wouldn't matter shortly.

All the more reason to try and get out of here. They aren't

going to just let me go when they're done with me. I gotta think

of something.

He looked down at his manacles. They had a little play in them

so as not to cut off the circulation, but there was no way he was

going to wriggle them off his wrists.

Unless I suddenly got a lot smaller...

He looked over to the stainless steel toilet basin in the corner

by the dim crack of light from the bottom of the door. He didn't

need a lot, just enough to transform. He crawled over to the toilet

and splashed up water upon himself.

It was tepid, but just cold enough to do the job. He felt himself

shrink into the tattered fabric of his ruined tuxedo. His breasts

swelled from his chest even as his wrists and ankles shrunk in

their manacles. The things nearly fell off him as he became a girl.

Ranma-chan slipped off her manacles and stepped out of her

leg irons. It wasn't much, but this was the closest she'd been to

freedom in three days. She knew that she couldn't get the door

open as a girl, and doubted that she would have the strength or

the focus to blast it open. All she needed to do was bide her time

and wait for them to come for her.

And wouldn't they be in for a surprise.

Nabiki and Ferguson stopped the truck along the Right Bank of

the river Seine near Bercy. It was late evening and the many barges

and boats that plied the river were now moored. She could see the

glow of the Eiffel Tower in the distance, just barely in sight past the

distant Notre Dame Cathedral upon the Ile de la Cite, across the

water. Anazali stepped out from the passenger side and surveyed

their surroundings.

They were on the eastern end of Paris. The express lanes along

the Right bank were to the west of them and a large industrial park

was on the other side of the river. There wasn't much traffic here,

vehicular or otherwise.

"I believe this is the place," she said to them.

" Okay Fergy-baby, you know what to do, " Nabiki told him.

Ferguson nodded and engaged the parking brake. He left the

motor running as he stepped out of the cab.

" This would go a little faster if you helped, lass, " he told her.

Nabiki gestured to the cellular phone she held in her hand.

" Timing is essential my dear Ferguson. You wouldn't want me

to miss our cue would you? "

Ferguson grunted something inaudible and headed to the back

of the truck. Pulling back the canvas flap that covered the bed, he

lowered the tailgate, set two long four by sixes down as a ramp,

and began to carefully roll the ten 55 gallon drums down onto the

pavement. Anazali kept up the watch as Ferguson rolled each

drum to the side of the street and the masonry and wrought iron

fence that protected against a drop to the river twenty feet below.

He stood the drums up on end and reached into his back pocket

for the bung wrench.

He loosened the bung caps on the drums, both the vent and the

siphon caps. For curiosity's sake he took the vent cap off of one

and took a whiff. A strong petroleum smell hit him square on.

Ferguson was standing beside 550 gallons of JP-8 high

performance military jet fuel.

" Coming up on target, " Heironymous Durango announced.

He thumbed one of the function keys on the GPS display, calling

up a preprogrammed position map. D-Day had the wheel, and

made the course corrections as Durango called them out. The

light of Paris was a distant glow on the horizon.

Hiro nodded in reply. Akane hunched next to him in the

cockpit. He still couldn't believe they were taking her with them.

It was bad enough that Clay had no experience in these matters,

but the rest of them save Akane were all warriors of one sort or

the other. Even Aerandir from the look of his broadsword.

Akane may have been a martial artist, but she had never pulled

the trigger on someone, so to speak.

" Did I tell you that I hate the French? " Durango asked them

then.

" No, I don't think you've ever mentioned that, " Hiro replied.

" Back in '86 old D-Day and I were side by side in our Vark

flying to some place we'd never even heard of before about two

weeks previous. Place called Tripoli. We were going there to bomb

it.

" We were flying out of the UK then, didn't transfer to

Germany until just before the Gulf War. It was a hell of a flight,

and the worst of it was the State Department couldn't get

permission from those French pantywaists to fly through their

airspace. Once the French refused, the Spanish refused as well.

We had to fly clear around the Iberian peninsula -another six

friggin' hours in the air. "

" The Speed was nice, " D-Day added sarcastically.

" Oh yeah, two hundred feet off the deck at eight hundred

knots and you're amping on amphetamines. Great fun. That's

why the computer was flying the plane until we got 'feet dry'.

Anyways we're taking flight surgeon issued amphetamines to

stay alert 'cause we're gonna be in the air fourteen hours just

to reach the target.

" We were all pissed off at the French, and we had plenty

of time to stew over it. Finally after I pissed in my flightsuit for

the second time I decided to do something about it. Get a little

payback you might say. "

He looked at them for a second to make sure they were

getting all of this.

" Ever heard of a Paveway laser-guided bomb? "

Hiro and Akane traded looks.

" Not that I recall, " Hiro answered.

" They don't miss, " he told them. " Trust me, D-Day and

I dropped enough of them in Iraq, and we never once missed.

They go exactly where the Pavetack designator directs them. "

Hiro wasn't sure where the pilot was going with this. Akane

listened patiently for the punch line.

" I dropped a Paveway laser-guided bomb right into the

French Embassy courtyard in Tripoli, " Durango said with an

evil grin. D-Day suddenly whooped with laughter at the memory

of it.

" The official story was that a bomb had missed, or that possibly

one of the SAMs the Libyans launched at us ran out of fuel and

crashed there. We weren't the only ones upset with the French,

and the brass swept the whole thing under the rug. I might have

felt bad about it afterwards, but when we learned that Ducky and

Bull had crashed into the drink on the way out I felt vindicated...

We all knew the goddamn speed made them so paranoid that they

didn't use the computer and they ended up crashing into the sea...

We wouldn't have needed the speed if it wasn't for those six extra

hours in the air...

" And that's why I hate the French, " he finished. He turned

back to the GPS display. " You two better get ready, you've got

fifteen minutes. "

Hiro and Akane nodded and went aft.

" Orly Approach is gonna want to hear from us soon, " D-Day

said after the two headed back to the main cabin.

" Screw 'em. They have a radio. "

D-Day jerked a thumb aft.

" This is just a little nuts, man. "

" A little? " Durango asked.

" Don't get me wrong man, I believe him if he says he can do

it. It's just that this isn't something that happens every day. "

" We must maintain a sense of wonder in this world my dear

Daniel Day. "

" Piss off. Call me D-Day. "

" Sure thing. " Durango adjusted the display for the small

pulse Doppler weather radar they had retrofitted in the nose of the

seaplane. There was clear skies ahead, no nasty winds or other

developments that would preclude what they were going to attempt.

" Why are we doing this again? Besides the adventure of it of

course. It ain't just payback on the French again, either. "

" I like that Saotome kid, " Durango replied. " And I like

Akane. It really burns my ass to hear how they attacked them

right after the guy proposed to her. What a bunch of bastards! "

" Proposed? I thought they were already engaged? "

" One of those arranged marriages I'm told. "

" They still do that? "

Durango took over the wheel while D-Day got out of his seat

to energize the EW rig. Various signals posted themselves on the

split screen display. D-Day began to isolate and identify signals

for their use in the immediate future.

" Guess so. They must have decided that they loved each

other after all or something. All the more reason to get them back

together. "

He reached down to the radio transponder panel, and dialed in

the number that was taped next to it. Bettie's Dare suddenly

became British Airways Express Flight 4255 on the worksheets

of Air Traffic Controllers at Charles de Gaulle and Orly

international airports. British Airways Express Flight 4255

never existed; it was in fact a flight plan filed by one of the

people Nabiki had talked to on the telephone the night before.

The man was a friend of Durango's who ran a dubious air-freight

business out of Calais.

" Okay people! " Durango yelled aft to get their attention.

" Our masquerade is in effect! Ten minutes! "

The radio crackled for attention. A voice in French accented

English spoke to them.

" Bravo One Seven Seven, Orly Approach; advising you of

the outer marker, over. "

Durango keyed his transmitter.

" Roger Orly Approach, this is Bravo One Seven Seven,

requesting permission to enter Class Bravo airspace, over. "

" Copy Bravo One Seven Seven, permission granted. Climb

to flight level one-zero-zero and turn left to course zero-three-five.

Squawk six-six-zero-zero, and await further instructions, over. "

Durango complied and set his transponder to 6600. Then he

picked up the cellular phone taped to the side of the console. He

dialed a number from a yellow post-it note on the control yoke.

Professor Balthazar McFogg sat in the study of his mansion in

London with Doctor Casimir, Doctor Vickers, MD; Katy Price,

and Ames. Several students from Cambridge University were there

as well, one of whom was online in a chat room via the Internet.

The others in the chat room made small talk, but they were

'virtually' assembled for one purpose that evening.

A cellular phone began to ring. The Professor and Katy both

made a dive for it, with the Professor snatching it up and answering.

The loud thrum of supercharged radial piston engines greeted him.

" Yes? " he asked.

" Eight minutes to contact, " Heironymous Durango told him.

" Everything's go unless I say otherwise. Out. "

The line went dead.

The Professor looked at his pocket watch and waited.

Hiro checked his gear securely fastened to his body. Then he

went through his weapons. Sig Sauer P-220 and six magazines,

that was his backup weapon. The one he carried in hand was a

Thompson SMG with 30 round stick magazine, and an army

surplus magazine pouch with six more. He had decided on the

Tommygun over an MP-5PK because it was .45 caliber, the

same as his pistol. It didn't have any suppresser on it, but Hiro

figured that if it came down to actually using it, it wouldn't matter.

An Ithaca Stakeout 12 gauge pump shotgun was slung over

shoulder.

Kuno carried his sword. That was all he needed, and

would accept no firearms. Hiro knew from experience that the

swordsman was deadly with his sword, even in the middle of a

firefight, and so didn't press too hard for him to accept at least

a pistol.

Akane had no understanding of firearms nor any desire to carry

one. Hiro wasn't going to try and get her to carry one either. So

armed she could be as dangerous to them as the Russians. She

was to stick close to Aerandir's side in any event.

Clay took a matching Sig, but he had only done a little target

shooting on a range. Aerandir had his sword, plus whatever other

firepower he might suddenly muster in their defense. If it came

down to a firefight, Hiro was going to be the only one capable

of shooting back.

The point of the plan was that it wasn't supposed to get that

far. Hiro knew better than that, but had held his tongue. He resolved

to be ready for anything. The only martial art he knew was Ching

Ching Pow. His weapons were the extensions of his art. At least

he told himself this often whenever he saw a true martial artist at

work.

Aerandir gathered them close to him. This was the part Hiro

was dreading. He was an accidental commando thanks to Operation

Chancellor, but a paratrooper was the last thing he had ever

considered being in his short career as a soldier. The dreadful

part was that paratroopers at least had parachutes. They didn't

have that luxury.

"Hold tight to each other until we touch the ground," he

admonished them.

Akane looked to Hiro, who nodded his head and put his arm

around her waist. She wanted to go, he couldn't stop her, so be it.

He just wished everything would work out okay. She smiled gamely

for him and locked her arm around his waist. Aerandir took hold

of her from the other side. Kuno and Clay joined up and then

Kuno took hold of Hiro.

"Are you scared?" Akane asked him. She looked very frightened,

but was still determined to go on. He wondered what he was looking

like for her to ask.

"Scared to death," he whispered in her ear.

"Me too," she admitted.

He gave her a squeeze which she returned gratefully.

They were ready. It was all in Durango's court now.

Nabiki nearly jumped out of her shoes when the cellular phone

rang. She turned it on.

" Ready? " She asked.

" Five minutes to contact. Get ready. " It was Durango's voice

over the roar of propeller wash.

" Gotcha, " she replied.

The line clicked dead.

She turned to Ferguson and gave him a 'thumbs up'. He returned

her gesture. Anazali came up next to her and began taking deep

breaths.

Ferguson removed all of the bung caps from the drums and began

kicking them on their sides. JP-8 began gushing forth to spill down

into the river. The current was slow on this part of the Seine, and a

rapidly expanding slick of high performance jet fuel began to form.

"Are you going to be able to do this?" Nabiki asked her.

"Don't worry about me Nabiki," Anazali returned. "Now you

and Ferguson get out of here so we can continue with the plan."

" All done here, " Ferguson cried as the last of the drums

emptied. He began to pick up a drum.

"Leave them," Anazali cried. "I shall take care of them. Go now!"

Ferguson shrugged and jumped into the truck with Nabiki. He

released the brake and jumped on the gas. The truck sped away as

Anazali gathered in the energies around her. She felt something odd

in the wind. Something unexpected.

" Talk to me D-Day, " Durango said with a tight edge to his

voice.

" I've got Orly's air search radar locked down. Interference

patterns just as we thought. Gotta keep it low, though. Charles de

Gaulle is screened by the big housing tracts around Saint-Denis

to the northeast of city center when we get in close. "

" It's a real bitch when the Paris skyline isn't any taller than

six stories. No where to hide. "

" You like a challenge, man. "

Durango smiled. " That I do. " He turned back to the main

cabin. " Four minutes! "

"We are ready, Mister Durango." Aerandir called back to him.

Durango looked to D-Day, who rejoined him at the controls.

D-Day gave him a 'thumbs-up.' Durango nodded, laughed once,

and then dialed his transponder to 7700.

" Here we go! "

He took a deep breath and clicked on his radio transmitter to

121.5 MHz.

At first, Orly Approach did not notice that B177's transponder

squawk had changed to 7700. He was busy directing the always

crowded airspace around two major airports. When Durango's

voice came over the radio, the controllers suddenly looked to

their screens in the closest they would allow themselves to panic.

B177 was headed straight for metropolitan Paris.

" MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY... This is Bravo-1-7-7, British Air

Express Flight 4-2-5-5 declaring an in-flight emergency! I am

twelve miles northwest of Orly airport VOR, Heading 1-1-9 True,

at flight level 1-0-0, speed two hundred knots. I have a hydraulic

plant failure and a fire light in number one engine! Request

emergency clearance to land! "

The ATC supervisor took immediate charge of the situation.

He consulted the displays while another controller pulled Flight

4255's flight plan and manifest. He flashed the number 26 with

his fingers, indicating that Flight 4255's total list of flight crew

and passengers was 26 people.

" Roger, Bravo-1-7-7-Heavy, this is Orly Approach. Can you

maintain flight level 1-0-0? Over. "

" Negative, Orly Approach, my elevons seem to be jammed

with the hydraulic failure, I'm dropping out. " It was the best

Durango could do to keep a straight face.

" Understood, Bravo-1-7-7-Heavy. Can you turn right to 1-6-5

True? We are trying to clear a path for you, over. "

Durango paused for a moment as if he was actually trying to

turn. Instead he began his shallow dive towards the heart of Paris

a few miles distant. His landmark was the Arc de Triomphe, which

someone had thoughtfully illuminated for him.

" Negative, Orly Approach! " He cried in his best panicked

voice. " We have suffered a total hydraulic failure. It's knocked

out all controls, we're trying to hand pump them into position! "

" Copy, Bravo-1-7-7-Heavy. What are your intentions? Over. "

A total hydraulic failure was as unlikely as they came, but the men

at Orly were too busy thinking about 26 people on a crippled aircraft

and who knew how many below if they should crash in the city.

" Put out the alert to the Metropolitan Emergency Services! "

the Supervisor ordered. A man scrambled to a telephone. " Get the

crash teams on Runway 2-9 North and clear all traffic from there. I

don't care if you delay half our flights! "

" Orly Approach, I intend to crash land in Bois de Boulogne

Park if I cannot make the airport, " Durango told them. Then added

with a cry, " I have a fire light in number two engine! Losing

electrical power! "

" Bravo-1-7-7-Heavy, keep trying to turn, " the ATC pleaded

with them. " We have Runway 29 North cleared for emergency

landing, but you must turn to 1-7-2 True! "

The radio began to crackle badly as if it was shorted out.

" Orly Approach, Bravo-1-7-7, we can't hold it in the air any

longer. We think we have the gear locked down but electrical power

is failing and we can't get a 'locked' light. We--- "

Durango clicked off the radio and began sniggering, trying to

hold it in and keep his concentration.

The men in Orly ATC went silent. Eyes went to displays where

the blip marked 7700 dropped lower and lower, and headed straight

for downtown Paris. There was nothing they could do now but wait

for the inevitable.

Bettie's Dare howled over the rooftops of Nanterre on its way

into Paris proper. D-Day had swiveled the GPS display to face him,

and now called out course corrections to Durango in his measured

bombardier drawl. The pilot dove the Catalina down to 500 feet. It

was just like the good old days, only instead of dropping a few

thousand pounds of high explosives they would be dropping about

six hundred pounds of people.

" Nothing like screaming in over the rooftops of Paris at six

hundred knots, eh D-Day? "

D-Day spared him a momentary frown. " Six hundred knots? "

" Awright, so it's only two hundred, it's still a gas! "

They were almost to the Arc de Triomphe. Durango made his

bank when D-Day called it out, and the Catalina slipped in midair

to a parallel track along the Champs Elysee headed southeast. Their

target was coming up: an older four story building better known as

the Russian Embassy to France.

" Thirty seconds! " he yelled.

Aerandir opened the door, and the wind howled and threatened

to suck them out. The lights of Paris glowed below them, though

much closer than Hiro and Akane and Clay would have preferred.

Kuno of course was fearless in this regard, and it was Aerandir who

would support them. He had no doubts in his mind. If he did it

wouldn't work.

"Remember to hold tight to each other, the slipstream could

be treacherous," he admonished them.

Durango made the final adjustments to their heading. D-Day

called out the GPS cues as they howled in under 200 feet. With

his other hand D-Day throttled back on Bettie's engines. Durango

began to pull up into a slight climb and lowered the flaps. The

Catalina began to flare out, and airspeed bled off quickly. The

final act was to switch off the transponder and altimeter squawk.

" Ten seconds! " Durango yelled. " And remember: I NEVER

MISS!!! "

Bettie's Dare screamed in within two city blocks of the Embassy

at two hundred feet. The preprogrammed GPS prompt began to

flash on the display. D-Day's voice rang out clear and loud over

the roar of the engines.

" DROP! DROP! DROP! "

Aerandir pushed them out the door with as much force as he dared.

" They're clear! " D-Day called as he watched out of the

canopy. He still couldn't believe they were doing this, but what

the hell!

Durango firewalled the engines, which roared in reply. The

Catalina began to level off as it shot straight over the roof of the

Russian Embassy. Durango slip turned back on course directly

above the always busy Champs Elysee at an altitude of one hundred

and twenty feet.

" Keep this pig in the air, man! " D-Day yelled.

" I'm on it! " Durango shot back.

" You're gonna drop us straight into the Tulleries, " D-Day

observed, gesturing to the park before them, and to the Louvre

not so far ahead. Like any good bombardier, he knew better than

to try and usurp Durango's control by grabbing his own control

column.

" I ain't gonna drop us in the Tullieries! " Durango snarled

back as he wrenched at the control column. " Have a little faith

will ya?! "

Ivan Tarchenko heard the sound of Bettie's Dare roaring

overhead and then felt the entire building shake with its passing.

What on Earth was that?

He and the others who enjoyed a late evening drink in the

lounge looked up to the ceiling. Someone declared that it sounded

like a low flying aircraft. Members of the diplomatic staff ran to

the windows.

" There is a plane crashing! " One of them cried. That drew

the rest to the windows.

Nabiki and Ferguson were heading to the pickup point when

they saw the Catalina roar overhead, and dive for the river Seine.

Ferguson stopped the truck as he and Nabiki looked out the

windows. The seaplane was dropping like a dead duck.

" Oh I hope Durango knows what he's doing, " Ferguson

remarked.

" They should be out by now, " Nabiki said, thinking of Hiro

and the others. She didn't know that Akane had accompanied them

yet. She looked down at the cellular phone in her lap. Soon it would

ring, at least she hoped it would.

Anazali drew in the energy around her, felt it build up within her

body. The seaplane was close, she could hear it diving towards the

river where she stood. This was not something she made a habit of.

She wasn't as strong as most of the others. Not like Aerandir, who

was stronger than he believed.

The air seemed to crackle around her.

Bettie's Dare was seconds away.

" This is it! " Durango cried. He jerked at the control column

as the Catalina dropped like a rock in a stall. D-Day grabbed at his

column in support of Durango. They risked all the engine power

they had in their final maneuver.

" One way or another people're gonna think we crashed! "

He yelled to no one in particular.

Bettie's Dare bounced along the water for an instant before

clawing it's way aloft. The two pilots had calculated their fuel

consumption very carefully to know how heavy they'd be when

they hit. It was close enough.

Anazali released the energy that had built up within her in a

furious lighting bolt. The bolt rippled across the river with a great

thunderclap, and the jet fuel exploded into the air with a blinding

fireball. Windows shattered close by, buildings shook, and the

small railway bridge over the Seine she had targeted disintegrated

in a roiling cloud of dust and shattered masonry.

Flames leaped across the river, rising fifty feet into the air.

She was nearly overwhelmed by the fierce heat, and found

herself stepping back in response. Debris from the destroyed

bridge began raining down around her. Traffic slowed on the

nearby highway as the fireball climbed into the sky.

As an afterthought she obliterated the ten empty fuel drums.

Fragments of scorched metal began to scatter around the street in

concert with the pieces of shattered stone. It was a scene straight

out of a disaster movie, and would keep emergency services busy

for sometime before anyone figured out that it was a hoax.

Feeling very tired, she ran away from the river to her next

objective. The nagging feeling that something was in the wind

tugged at her awareness. She couldn't put her finger on it yet.

The sing-song wail of French emergency and police sirens

picked up in the distance.

Ranma-chan felt the building shake above her. She had no idea

what it was, but it was followed moments later by the sounds of

boot steps coming down the short hallway outside. She tensed in

expectation, ready to explode into whoever was dumb enough to

open the door.

Akane had never wanted to scream so badly in her life. Her

voice just wouldn't come. She was falling at a hundred miles per

hour straight at a building from a height of a two hundred feet. In

fact there were buildings all around them they could hit. She

clutched onto Hiro with all her strength as he was the first out

of the door. She was dimly aware that Kuno was now behind

and above her.

Aerandir focused himself and began to pull at the winds around

them. There was ample energy to be found in the currents of the

air, and he was well accustomed to controlling them. The wind

responded to his wishes, twisting and pushing up at them. Their

falls began to slow.

He then tugged at the four below him, catching them up in his

mind. He willed them to slow down even as the winds pushed

against their fall. He needed energy to do this, but there was plenty

to be found in a bustling city of ten million people.

With one last tug of his mind he stopped them three feet short

of the ground. He released them then, and they dropped to their

feet upon the grounds within the twenty foot compound walls of

the Embassy. The underground garage was only thirty meters

away, and that was their best access into the building.

Professor McFogg's watch read the appointed time. Durango

had not called, and therefore he had to assume that everything

was going as planned. He nodded his head to the Cambridge

student at the computer terminal.

The student got everyone's attention in the chat room. Upon

giving the proper code word, those who were involved

acknowledged and left the chat room. The student then

disconnected.

McFogg looked to Doctor Casimir, who had his fingers crossed,

and to Doctor Vickers, who had brought two interns, a nurse and

enough surgical gear and supplies to provide immediate trauma

care as necessary when they arrived in England. McFogg prayed

that it was an unnecessary precaution.

Now all they could do was wait.

Emergency lines began ringing off the hook in Paris. Some of

the calls were legitimate calls from local Parisians who lived close

to the explosion Anazali had caused. The rest were a sudden influx

of bogus calls being bounced in from across Europe while looking

like local calls. They all said the same thing though: that a plane

had crashed in the river near Bercy.

Fire Companies scrambled to their trucks. Hospitals went on

alert. Police units called in off duty officers. The city responded as

best it could. No one knew exactly what was going on yet, but

plenty of misinformation was being fed to them.

That was why no one was terribly surprised when half of Paris

went black with the sudden disruption of electrical power.

Anazali couldn't keep this kind of destruction up all night. The

substation crackled merrily beneath the street after the Maiar

woman had summarily blown it up. Pink and gold flames

launched into the air from vents in the streets and manway

covers. Lights went out all around her as power was lost.

Aerandir had just enough warning to push the others clear before

a lightning bolt exploded at his feet. Hiro had his Tommygun to bear

but no one to aim it at. The Embassy went dark a moment later.

Kuno caught Akane before she could fall, and pulled her to safety

beneath the garage overhang. Clay threw himself against the wall

and held out his pistol. He had nothing to aim at, but felt much

better with it in hand.

Aerandir looked up to see a man floating thirty feet above him.

A glitter of silver caught his eye, a large broadsword. He didn't

have to see who it was that nearly fried them with a lightning bolt.

He felt his familiar presence.

It was his brother Palandir.

"Sil Amarn! I will not allow you to betray us so!" Palandir cried

to him in the tongue of the Maia.

"It is you who betray the world!" Aerandir retorted. He

detached a part of his consciousness long enough to shout in

the minds of Hiro, Akane, Kuno, and Clay.

Go! Find Ranma and get him to safety! I shall follow when

I can!

Hiro was the first to jump to action. He rushed the door to the

parking garage, jamming the butt of his Tommygun into the jaw

of the one man on guard. The Russian was stunned by the force

of the thunderclap, Hiro's strike put him out for the rest of the night.

"Come on!" He shouted to the others.

Palandir watched them run and raised another lighting bolt. It

was hard to find the energy with all of the power out in the

neighborhood. He was forced to reach farther from the center

of the city. It took more time than he had.

Aerandir lofted up at him with his sword ready. Palandir let

go of his tenuous hold on the energy and raised his sword in

defense. Steel rang against steel as the two brothers clashed in

midair.

"Very clever, brother!" Palandir noted. The other four had

escaped within the garage, and there was no way he could reach

them without turning away from Aerandir. He did have other

means of taking care of them. As Aerandir had done moments

earlier, he now detached a part of his consciousness to sound the

alarm within the minds of Ivan Tarchenko and his cronies.

Ivan Tarchenko looked up at the lights as they went out. He saw

that lights had gone out all over that part of town. It didn't matter,

the Embassy had it's own backup diesel-driven generators on the

premises. They would start up automatically.

He suddenly wondered if the plane crash they had witnessed as

a huge ball of fire rising into the sky had been responsible. It made

sense. He looked to Fyodor and the other thugs in his employ.

They seemed unconcerned with the goings-on.

It was late. He was about to take his leave of the room and go

to bed when a sudden thought burst into his mind. Concern flashed

across his awareness. Something was very wrong and he must see

that his Japanese prisoner was secure.

It must have been the paranoia born of being a spy, but he

trusted gut instinct. Right now his gut was telling him to make

certain Ranma Saotome was secure. He yelled to Fyodor and

his men and ordered them to follow him to the examination cells

in the basement.

Ranma-chan tried to contain her glee as the sounds of a bolt

being thrown back echoed in the silence of the basement. The door

was opened. Just then the lights went out. She saw her one favorite

jailer look dumbstruck at the sight of a young woman wearing a

tattered tuxedo with the sleeves and pant legs rolled up to her

elbows and knees.

It was the last thing he saw. As the building's lights went out,

so did his.

Emergency lights flicked on. Ranma-chan cracked her knuckles

with righteous fury as the man bounced off the far wall and collapsed

with a heavy thud to the stone floor. Doctor Pulatski stood across

the hall in shock as he saw a strange red-haired girl step out of the

cell and bash the daylights out of Gennady.

Ranma-chan turned and saw Pulatski back against the far wall

of the hallway, stammering in broken Russian. She glowered at him

and started stomping towards him. It was the kind of walk that was

only intimidating if you were a full grown and muscular man. The

hate filled look in Ranma-chan's eyes more than made up for the

fact that she weighed 100 pounds soaking wet and holding a brick.

"You!" She yelled at him.

He didn't understand Japanese, but he had an idea what she

was saying as she stabbed a finger at him.

She backed him against the wall and then lashed out a hand to

collar him and lift him up on his toes. Nevermind the fact that he

was several heads taller than the mysterious and extremely violent

girl that grabbed him. Nevermind the fact that he was even now

voiding his bladder onto the stone floor. Ranma-chan seemed not

to notice.

Ranma-chan switched to English. Hopefully the Russian had

a smattering of that. Otherwise she was just going to beat him to

a pulp and find someone else who could show her to the door.

" Two things! " She yelled in his face. " Hot water and the

way out of here! "

" What? " Pulatski cried. He understood the part about

leaving, but hot water?

" I said...! " Ranma-chan yelled, putting the squeeze on

Pulatski's throat. " I want some hot water and the way out of

here! "

Hot water?

Ranma-chan gave him a tighter squeeze.

Pulatski gestured over to the examination room. Through the

open door she could see a coffee pot and some instant tea bags

in a glass bowl. Steam wafted from the pot.

She picked him up by the throat and dragged him with her to

the examination room. With one hand clamped firmly around his

throat, she reached out to the coffee pot and picked it up. This

was going to hurt, but beggars couldn't be choosy.

She dumped the contents of the pot on her head. It was coffee

all right. And it was hot. She screamed in pain, and her voice

suddenly took on a deeper timbre. Pulatski nearly fainted as he

watched the girl grow taller, muscles burst forth on her arms, a bit

of five o'clock shadow formed on the face, the jawline became

tight and firm.

Suddenly there was a fully grown Japanese man with a black

pigtail holding him by the throat. It was Ranma Saotome! He

couldn't believe his eyes!

" Now about the way outta here... " Ranma growled

menacingly at him.

" H-How did..? " Pulatski stammered in Russian.

Ranma threw the man into a stack of computer equipment.

Pulatski crashed onto the floor whining in pain. Ranma stood

over him and kicked him sharply with his bare foot.

" No time for that! " He yelled at the fallen scientist. " All I

want is for you to get me the hell out of here. Do that and I'll let

you live. Otherwise... " He drew his hand across his throat in a

slicing motion.

Pulatski got the hint.

" Which way? " Hiro cried. They had made their way into the

lower levels of the Embassy with ease during the confusion.

Casimir had drawn them a fairly accurate map of the Embassy

from his time spent there in the 60s. Fortunately they hadn't done

any major remodeling since then, as Hiro found what he

remembered to match up well with what he found. So far so good...

They had Akane in the middle with Clay. Kuno followed as

rearguard with his katana drawn and ready. Aerandir hadn't caught

up with them, and Hiro could only presume that the mariner was

busy outside.

Clay squinted hard at Akane. The excitement was interfering

with his concentration, but after a few moments he could see the

red thread of psionic force that lead from her heart point straight

down and to the left of them. Ranma was down there.

" The basement! " Clay responded. " To the left and down. "

That was good enough for Hiro Ohata. He introduced a burly

GRU major who had blundered into them from a side door to the

butt of his Tommygun. The two hit it off right from the start, but

it was a short friendship.

As the GRU major hit the floor, things went to hell from there.

A security man cried out and drew a machine pistol. Hiro barked

a warning for Akane and Kuno and brought the Tommygun to

bear. Akane had just enough time to cry out as the first of the

Russian's burst chewed into the fine oak paneled walls over her

head before Hiro's answering burst took the man apart at the

midsection.

They ran past the fallen guard. Akane looked down with

horror at the dead Russian's body. There wasn't time for

anything more as the sounds of gunfire drew more attention.

Clay pulled on her with them. Suddenly she began to have a sense

of appreciation for Hiro trying to keep her from joining them.

Hiro led the way. The idea that they had been discovered rang in

his mind. It was to be expected, but they were counting on Aerandir's

support. Now it was up to him to get them out of this alive. It was

like being back in the middle of the war again. He had never felt

more alive in his life than when someone was actively trying to kill

him.

Another burst of gunfire ripped apart an endtable in the hallway.

Hiro barked a short burst of suppression fire at the security man,

who ducked behind a door frame. The door to the stairwell was

just past the hallway.

" Get Akane through that door! It leads to the basement! "

Hiro yelled. He unlimbered his shotgun and cycled a shell.

Clay started to go, but the security man popped out from behind

the door while Hiro was busy and nearly blew the scientist apart in

a storm of 9mm hollowpoints. Akane saw the Russian just in time

and jerked him back behind the corner. Hiro fumbled up his

Tommygun with one hand and cut loose with the rest of the

magazine. The Russian ducked back behind the ruined door

frame to reload. Kuno sounded like he was hacking someone

up down the hall.

Hiro was ready now with the shotgun.

"Go!" he yelled at them. "I'm covering!"

Clay swallowed hard and jumped into the open. Akane followed.

The Russian appeared, and he had a friend. Hiro clamped down on

the shotgun trigger and held on.

Hiro's shotgun blast annihilated the door behind the two

Russians as they jumped back inside at the last second. They

popped back out, guns blazing, before they thought Hiro could

cycle another shell through the breech. They were wrong.

9mm bullets whined past his head and shot down the hall.

One very nearly struck Akane, but it smashed into the paneled

walls and showered her with splinters. She cried out about the

time Hiro fired a second time with the shotgun.

Whereas Hiro's first shell had been double-ought buckshot,

the second shell was a 3 inch Nitromag .50 caliber discarding sabot

slug. It blasted clean through both mens' chests, through the wall

behind them, and out a first floor window via the closed steel

shutters. Hiro's wrist and the webbing between his thumb and

forefinger were on fire. That was just not the kind of shotgun shell

you fired with a roomsweeper like the Stakeout.

Kuno ran up to him as he winced in pain for his wrist.

"No time to dawdle, man!" Kuno rebuked. "This way! Onward!"

Kuno charged through the door with his bloodstained sword

after Clay and Akane. Hiro decided to sling the shotgun again

and use the Tommygun for awhile. At least as long as the ammo

held up. He had burned one magazine already and they still hadn't

found Ranma. The way things looked the whole building would

realize they were under attack before they could get out.

He jacked a fresh clip into the Tommygun and turned to follow

Kuno. He tried to ignore the two ruined corpses not ten meters

away. The sight of the cherries jubilee stain all over the hallway

was a little much even for him.

Aerandir leaped clear of Palandir's fiery sword. His brother

was ever the finer swordsman than he, and he suspected he was

holding back from him. He managed to hold his own against the

renewed assault, but it was taking all he had.

"Why do you insist in this Sil Amarn?" Palandir asked him. "We

are your family!"

"Ask yourself why you insist upon destroying the world, Sil

Amass," Aerandir retorted. "For that is what you seek!"

Palandir didn't reply to that. Instead he lashed savagely at his

brother and said, "In truth I did not expect to see you here, brother.

One would think the sea has too great a hold upon you."

"When the cause is noble enough, not even the sea may hold

me fast in its thrall."

"And the life of one man is noble enough for you?"

"Especially the life of one man!" Aerandir cried. His brilliantly

flaming sword stroke nearly took Palandir's nose off. "We were

sworn to protect these people since before you and I were born!"

"Then why do you betray us!?" Palandir thundered. His

brilliant sword strokes drove Aerandir down towards the ground.

"Our uncle would save this world and it's people from themselves!"

Aerandir called up a reserve of strength to fight him off to a

standstill. Palandir retreated in midair to fly back thirty meters from

him. The mariner rose up to the same height and waited.

"A hundred of our finest magi couldn't hold the Heart of the

World in the end. How do you imagine our dear uncle could hope

to do so alone?"

Palandir spit in reply. "Had any one of those hundred wise men

lived for twelve thousand years? I think not! Sarophan has the power

to tear this world in twain if that was his desire!"

"Sarophan may get his wish!"

They flew at each other again with renewed fury. They were

no longer brothers in each other's eyes. They were the deadliest

of enemies.

Ivan Tarchenko heard the sound of gunfire from the lower

levels and suddenly his worst fears were coming true. How was

this possible? This was the sovereign territory of the Russian

Federation. An attack was unthinkable! But he knew it to be

true. He knew what they had come for, whoever they were.

He wasn't going to let them have Ranma Saotome alive.

Fyodor and the others drew appropriate small arms and followed

Tarchenko to the basement holding area. Calls to the Paris Police

had been futile, every single man they had was converging on the

site of the plane crash. The local television stations, acting on

anonymous reports, were calling it the worst air disaster in French

history.

If necessary he would have Saotome killed on the spot. It

wasn't as if he had any more use for him in any event. Fyodor

grunted to his men, and they began to file down the hallways.

Staff types and pencil pushers cowered behind doors, unsure of

what was going on. They watched timidly at them as they made

their way to the stairwell. Others began the process of destroying

classified documents. He could hear the shredders working

overtime.

I'm afraid I've worn out my welcome here, Tarchenko

thought bitterly. But if in the end I have the Heart of the World,

it will not matter.

Ranma had Pulatski by the throat as the scientist directed him

towards the stairwell. If his luck held out, he could be free in ten

minutes. Maybe less. He didn't know what he would do once he

escaped, but he'd burn that bridge when he crossed it.

Chapter Four

Kuno had the point as they scrambled down the dimly lit

stairwell. His sword gleamed by the emergency lighting as he

stomped down the stairs. Akane stayed close to Clay. She was

starting to understand why Hiro had been so adamant about her

staying in Monaco. The last thing she wanted to think about

was getting herself shot.

She just wanted to find Ranma. She needed to know that he

was all right. She vowed that she would do anything to see him

safe and sound. They had a future together, and no one was going

to take that from them.

Hiro snaked ahead of them again. He had powder burns on his

face from where a guard had nearly taken his head off at point blank

range with an AK-74. Akane didn't have to guess where the bright

red splatter across his brow had came from.

" How much further? " He cried. He was running out of

ammo for the Tommygun.

Clay knew they were close. The red thread of force was visible

to him without any effort now.

" There! " he cried, pointing down to the bottom of the

stairwell. " He's down there for certain! "

Hiro slammed up against the stairwell wall to make room for

them to pass. "Kuno! Cover them below while I cover from

above!" He unlimbered the shotgun again and remembered to

extend the folding wire stock this time. It wasn't much, but at

least he could brace it against his shoulder.

"You need not give orders to me Ohata!" Kuno bellowed.

"Tatewaki Kuno knows what must be done!" He leaped over the

banister and down two flights of steps to the bottom.

Ranma Saotome appeared through the door with Pulatski in

his grasp.

Kuno very nearly decapitated Ranma in his fury and haste.

His blade stopped just a centimeter shy of Ranma's throat. Both

Ranma and Pulatski breathed a sigh of relief. Pulatski because

Kuno's blade was going to go through him on the way out of

Ranma's neck.

"Saotome!" Kuno announced. "I am a man of my word,

and have come to rescue you from these villains!"

"Hey uh, thanks Kuno," Ranma managed. As much as he

hoped someone would come, he honestly hadn't expected it.

"RANMA!" Akane cried out from a flight of stairs above.

Ranma looked up to see Akane, dressed in black mufti, looking

down at him. He didn't know if he wanted to cry out in delight or

in rage at seeing her here in the middle of this mess. Kuno took

his burden from him, throwing Pulatski against the wall and raising

his sword to cut him down.

"Thus ends thy sorry life!" Kuno cried wrathfully.

"Hold on a second Kuno!" Ranma told him. "We could always

use a hostage to get out of here." Even he had noticed the sounds

of gunfire raging above just minutes earlier, and figured the element

of surprise was quite thoroughly destroyed.

Kuno complied with a scowl and pushed the man before them

at the end of his sword. This sorry wretch deserved only a swift

death by his hands.

"Step lively knave, lest ye feel the steel of the Blue Thunder!"

A poke of the katana between the shoulder blades got Pulatski

moving, even though he didn't understand a word of Kuno's

Japanese.

Akane wasted no time in jumping down over the banister to

reach Ranma. She ran up to him and threw her arms around him,

eyes suddenly dewing with tears. A tiny part of him knew better

than to waste precious time holding her tight against him, but that

was the part that didn't love her with all of his heart. He caught

her up in what would have been a crushing embrace if they weren't

used to each other's shows of affection.

"I thought I'd lost you forever," she whispered to him.

"You know me better than that," he replied quietly.

"Well you didn't have to scare me like that. Twice is enough

for one lifetime with you! Now three times?" She retorted once

more in a whisper. She kissed him on the cheek next to his ear

and let him go.

"You okay Saotome?" Hiro called from above them.

"What took you so long?" Ranma shot back. "Hell, I was

halfway out of here on my own!"

"Finding out what city you were in took a little time," Hiro said

as the party climbed back up the steps. Pulatski was in front acting

as a convenient bullet stopper for them should the need arise. Clay

followed behind Kuno and Pulatski. Now that Ranma was found,

he served no more purpose, and was eager to get the hell out of

here while the getting was good.

"Oh yeah?" Ranma asked, holding Akane close to his side.

"What city is that?"

"Paris!" Akane said next to him.

"This ain't how I was hoping to visit Paris," he observed. He

reluctantly took the Tommygun Hiro gave him because he had been

pretty wasted over the last three days and had spent damn near

all his strength on Pulatski while in a rage. Hiro had the Stakeout

in hand, sweeping it along the winding stairwell banister above

them as they climbed.

"That's okay Saotome, I think we're in the process of leveling

most of it in order to make a diversion for your rescue," Hiro

remarked casually.

"That was nice of you."

"Anytime."

Ranma looked at the Tommygun.

"Feeling kinda light. What do I have left?"

Hiro handed him a stick magazine from his pouch. "Maybe half

a clip in the gun, plus this one. Don't spend it all in one place."

Ranma tucked the clip in his waist band. "I'll try not to."

"It's a Thompson, so it's got a low rate of fire compared to

the MP-5 you're used to. And the bullets are nice fat .45

hydrashoks, so don't try shooting through any walls with it.

They might make it through, but not in any shape to do much

good."

"I'll remember that."

They were just getting up to the right floor when a blast of

gunfire from high above them hit Pulatski. The scientist staggered

back against Kuno, his white lab coat suddenly soaked in red.

The man tumbled over as Kuno threw him aside and began

moaning on the stairwell.

Hiro only saw the muzzle flash for a second and fired his

Stakeout on reflex. Ranma jerked Akane behind him to shield

her from any more gunfire. Clay began shooting sporadically over

their heads until his Sig was empty.

" Did you think you were going somewhere Mister Saotome? "

Ivan Tarchenko yelled down at them in English. He looked to

the others in his group. Fyodor and his men readied hand

grenades. Their fingers locked around safety rings in preparation

to arm and toss them at Tarchenko's command.

" I'm tired of your lousy hospitality! " Ranma shot back.

" Perhaps we should talk this over, " Tarchenko told them.

" If you would prefer your fianc饠to live I suggest you listen to

me. "

" Go to hell! " Ranma yelled furiously.

Tarchenko nodded to Fyodor and the others. They pulled the

safeties on their grenades. The grenades' spoons flicked away and

rang upon the concrete stairs.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!" Kuno hissed

suddenly.

He wasted no time in busting down the door to the floor that

opened into the parking garage. He began waving his sword at

them to spur them on. Hiro finished off the rest of the shotgun's

internal magazine and began combat loading on the run.

"Make haste!" Kuno bellowed to the four of them. "Lest the

foe surround us!"

"Go!" Hiro yelled at Ranma and Akane. "While their heads

are down!" He kept up a blistering series of shotgun blasts.

Ranma pulled at Akane, practically dragging her through the

door. Clay was close behind them. Kuno was already charging

down the hall with his sword, chasing the staff types before

him and ranting madly.

Hiro saw the dull egg shaped grenades falling towards them

as they made their break for the exit to the stairwell. His finger

tensed on the trigger of the shotgun once more as he leaped for

the door. He just hoped it wouldn't hurt as much as he was

expecting.

"Fire in the hole!" He yelled.

Ranma caught and lifted Akane off her feet while still on the

run. He threw her a little roughly to the floor against the wall

and then dove over her body. She cried out in protest, but in

that scant second before the grenades went off she saw that he

was too busy holding his ears and yawning. In that instant she

figured he knew something she didn't, and copied him as best

she could.

Six grenades exploded in unison at the door. The shockwave

helped to blast Hiro clear of the door. Glass windows set in doors

shattered, paintings and photographs were shaken off the walls.

A wall of heat and black smoke washed over them.

A consuming silence fell over them, broken only by the patter

of dust and small bits of the ceiling raining down.

"You okay?" Ranma asked her.

She was seeing stars from the noise of the explosions, but told

him she was all right. He wasted no time in pulling her to her feet.

Clay was already up and helped them along. Ranma cast a look

back to Hiro, who pulled himself up and hobbled towards them

with a limp.

"Hiro!" Akane cried when she saw the bloodstains on his right leg.

Hiro waved them off and barked at them to keep moving.

"It ain't bad!" He protested. Actually it wasn't, but hurt like

blue blazes anyway just to spite him.

Aerandir knew he was outmatched against his brother's

swordsmanship. Part of his awareness informed him that Ranma

had been found alive and well, and for that he was glad. All he

needed to do was hold off his brother long enough for the others

to escape.

He wasn't sure what Palandir would do if he saw Ranma

escaping, but wasn't prepared to take any chances with the

young man's life. It was possible that Palandir was merely

around the Embassy awaiting orders from their uncle to kill

Ranma. Perhaps Sarophan had assessed the man and his

fianc饠as the threat Anazali and her companions believed them

to be.

He didn't have too much time to dwell on such thoughts, as

Palandir drove home another series of glittering fiery sword strokes

upon him. He heard astonished voices in French and Russian below

them as he fought off the attack. He and his brother were putting

on quite an aerial show for them.

"You waste my time brother," Palandir told him curtly. "I have

other business here."

"If it concerns the life of Ranma Saotome and his fianc饠than

I'm afraid you'll have to take it up with me, Sil Amass."

"So be it!" Palandir barked. "I did not wish to kill you, but if

I must than I shall!"

Aerandir braced for the all out assault he knew Palandir had

been holding back from him.

" I wish I knew what was going on, " Ferguson lamented.

The truck was at the assigned pickup point four blocks from the

embassy. Power was still out in this part of town, and the incessant

wail of police and emergency sirens echoed in the distance. The

Parisians hadn't figured out yet that the crash had been a hoax.

Nabiki silently agreed. Her thoughts drifted to Akane and

Ranma. Hiro. Even Tatewaki Kuno. She hoped they were all right.

Anazali appeared silently before them out of thin air. Both

Ferguson and Nabiki started in their seats within the truck. The

woman's oddly complected skin seemed to glow even in the

darkness. Nabiki found herself just a little jealous of her for a

moment.

The Maia woman looked very weary. She walked over to the

cab and opened the door. Nabiki scooted over next to Ferguson to

make room for her. Anazali stepped up into the cab and sank into

the bench seat.

"Are you okay?" Nabiki asked her.

Anazali nodded.

"I'm very worried," she told them. "I sense another presence

here. On par with Aerandir, and that frightens me."

"Huh? Who?" Nabiki asked. Ferguson was quite lost.

"There are few among my kind who are as old or as powerful

as Aerandir. I myself am but an eighth of his span of years... I fear

it may be Sil Amass, known as Palandir, his brother."

Nabiki remembered Aerandir mention his brother once to Ukyo.

He had been the one to pull them from the Dneister River. He

had saved them from Tarchenko's murder squad, and sent them

to safety with Aerandir that they be taken to Sarophan. If Palandir

was their enemy, then that meant that Sarophan was their enemy.

And that meant that...

"Oh my God!" Nabiki cried in horror. "Ukyo!"

"What is it, Nabiki?" Anazali asked her.

"Ukyo! She's with Aerandir's uncle!"

Anazali was missing something here. So was Ferguson. Nabiki

looked at both of them and grit her teeth in frustration. There was

too much to explain to be doing it here.

Anazali didn't give her the chance. She jumped out of the truck

and started running towards the Embassy.

"Waitaminute!" Nabiki yelled at her. "Where do you think

you're going?"

"Aerandir needs my help!" Anazali cried in reply. Then she

faded from sight.

"Damn!" Nabiki cursed. She turned to Ferguson and gave him

a sour look. " You know Fergy-baby, just once I'd like someone

to sit me down and explain to me absolutely everything that's going

on around here. "

Ferguson gave her a dubious look in reply, thinking back to what

he had said to begin this conversation. " You'd like to know what's

going on? Bloody hell lass, I should think you know a damn sight

more than me! "

The two of them harrumphed and turned back to face over the

hood of the truck. Nabiki felt very cold inside with the knowledge

that Ukyo was in the clutches of their enemy. I won't lose Akane,

Ranma, and Ukyo too. I won't lose any of them!

Tarchenko scrambled down the smoke filled stairwell when

Fyodor and his men had secured it. One of Fyodor's men had the

dazed Doctor Pulatski in his arms. Aside from the bullet wound in

the arm, the doctor was unhurt. Blind luck had him roll down the

stairs far enough to avoid the shrapnel of the grenades.

" Where are they? " He demanded.

Fyodor pointed down the hall.

" Kill them, Fyodor!" Tarchenko thundered to the big Ukrainian.

" They serve no further use to us, and are in fact aggravating me

greatly! Kill all of them! "

Fyodor nodded and circled his finger to muster his men. Finally

he would be able to do what he did best. He was tired of treading

lightly upon eggshells. It was time to crush a few.

Kuno held off two guards at sword point. He had deftly

disarmed them, his blade having cut clean through their rifles.

He was just about to turn them into steak tartare when Ranma

and the others came running towards him from down the hall.

The parking garage beyond was now filled with armed soldiers.

Unfortunately it was their only way out.

"Leave 'em," Ranma told the swordsman. "We got other

problems."

Kuno seethed at being told what to do, but conceded that

Saotome might have a point. He leaped at both of them, bringing

his pommel down upon their heads and knocking them out cold.

He spat upon them in contempt.

"Know ye that the mercy of the Blue Thunder is vast beyond

even your meager worth," he told them.

" I hope you have a plan to get past all those soldiers, " Clay

said in a hushed voice. The soldiers for their part were busy

watching two men outside wheel and dive around each other

in midair. Silvery flashes of light were punctuated by the ring

of steel on steel.

"That's Aerandir!" Akane cried. "Who's he fighting?"

"Beats me," Ranma replied. He looked to Hiro, who was

rubbing at his leg and looking for the piece of shrapnel that hurt

him so. "Got any ideas?"

"You're the great martial artist," Hiro replied between clenched

teeth. He found it.

"If I thought I had the juice left in me, I'd rush 'em." Ranma

said bitterly. "But even if I did, it's too dangerous with Akane

and Mister Clay to worry about."

"Hah! You think I can't take a few?" Akane asked archly.

Ranma clenched his fists and glared at her. She glared back

at him.

"For Christ's sake, this is no time to start arguing," Hiro spat.

He pulled an inch long piece of bloody steel filament wire from

his leg. Standard anti-personnel shrapnel. "Give me a minute, and

I'll give us a little cover."

He bit back a few choicer curses as he shifted his weight on

his wounded leg. He reached into his satchel and produced a

brace of four canisters. He handed one to Ranma, Kuno and

Akane, keeping the last for himself.

Akane looked at hers. It had this ring pin on the top of the can.

"What?"

"Smoke grenade," Ranma supplied for her.

"If I had any I woulda brought a few frags, but we were

kinda in a hurry to find you."

"This'll work," Ranma said. He looked to Kuno, who readied

his without a word. Then he looked to Akane. "Just pull the pin

when we do and throw the grenade at them."

"On three," Hiro said. He pulled his pin and the rest followed.

"One...Two.. Three!"

He lobbed his smoke grenade as Clay held the door open.

Ranma and Kuno hurled theirs. Akane wound up and threw hers

as hard as she could. Hiro's grenade popped loudly in flight, then

began spewing forth voluminous clouds of thick blue smoke. At

the sound the Russians turned, only to get more grenades going

off around them. The last Russian in sight took Akane's grenade

right in the forehead and was cold-cocked before it went off.

"Well that wasn't quite what I had in mind, but whatever works!"

Ranma said to her as they watched the Russian fall over unconscious.

Hiro charged through the smoke blasting his shotgun blindly in

the direction of the Russians. Kuno let out a blood-curdling war

cry and leaped to follow. Ranma led Akane around the outskirts

of the garage. There was no way he was going to take her through

the middle of Hiro and Kuno's crazed charge.

The garage became pure pandemonium. Choking blue smoke

filled the space, billowing out of the open doors. Gunfire erupted

in response to Hiro's shotgun blasts. Kuno kept yelling something

like "The Hundred Blows!" and men screamed in terror and pain.

Akane coughed against the smoke and her eyes watered badly.

Ranma led them past the melee with Clay close behind. As they

staggered out into the open he saw a Russian raise his rifle against

them. Akane shrieked once. He remembered the Tommygun and

emptied the clip into the man's legs. The Russian dropped like a

stone and began howling.

Hiro appeared through the smoke a second later. Kuno charged

through behind him. They were free of the building, there was

just the matter of the twenty foot high walls before them.

They looked towards the gate, which someone had finally

sealed off and posted with heavily armed security guards. They

wouldn't be getting out of there that way. They were still trapped.

"Aerandir was supposed to get us over the wall," Hiro said

bitterly.

Palandir had finally drawn blood. His brother had fought with

all his might, but the superior skill was beginning to tell. Aerandir

managed to disengage long enough to get a few meters between

them. Blood dripped down onto the grass of the courtyard below

from a slash across his side.

That was when Palandir saw that Ranma and the others had

escaped from the building.

"Very clever!" He commended Aerandir. "You play a

marvelous waiting game... All for naught I'm afraid."

Palandir began to gather the energy he needed. The electricity

was restored to the building, so there was no need to reach so

far from himself to collect it. He held Aerandir back with one

arm pointing the sword directly towards him, while the other arm

lifted over his head. St. Elmo's fire began to crackle in his hand.

Aerandir wasn't finished yet. He knew he couldn't charge his

brother without catching either the sword or the energy blast that

was being mustered. Instead he decided to affect a more localized

defense. He reached out with his mind, looking for something

useful.

A gas main beneath the grounds ruptured at his prompt.

It didn't take much from there to get it lit.

A geyser of blue and orange flame rocketed skyward. The

Russians on the grounds cried out in panic and threw themselves

to the grass. The main blowtorched fifty feet into the black sky.

The roar of the ruptured gas main was deafening, distracting

Palandir's attention back towards Aerandir. Ranma and the

others had a few more moments respite.

The exploding gas main sent Ranma and the others to the grass

as well.

"You get the feeling we're the minor players in this firefight?"

Hiro groused. He jerked a thumb into the air at the two dueling

Maiar.

"We got ourselves another distraction," Ranma said. He

scrambled to his feet. "Come on, I got an idea!"

They got up with him and followed him to the corner of the

wall and away from all of the pyrotechnics. Kuno began to argue

that a charge upon the gate would succeed, but Hiro started

yelling back that it was crazy to charge across that much open

ground. Clay kept watch against the Russians, but for the

moment it was clear that they were still trying to deal with

the exploding gas main to bother with the five intruders.

Ranma ignored them and looked straight into Akane's eyes.

"I need your help for this," he told her. "I can't do it alone."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I don't have the juice for a ki-blast on my own. I haven't

slept in three days, really. The only thing keeping me up right now

is the adrenaline. I need you to power me up."

"What? I can't do any of that stuff!" Akane protested. It was

a bitter point with her, as she had felt very little like a martial artist

around people who could use such techniques.

"You're wrong, Akane!" Ranma told her sternly. "This attack

doesn't work unless you have the utmost confidence in yourself.

You have to believe you can do it! I'll get the thing started, but I

need you to help me give it some oomph!"

"What are you talking about? How am I supposed to give any

power to you?"

Ranma clasped his hand in hers. By this time Hiro and Kuno

had stopped arguing and spared them a look of wonderment.

Then a stray bullet whizzing by got their attention, and they

focused themselves on holding the Russians off. Clay had the

Tommygun now, and began clipping short bursts at them to the

accompaniment of Hiro's shotgun and Kuno's taunting oaths.

Ranma paid no attention to any of it, instead looking once more

into Akane's eyes.

"It's our ki's, Akane. We've got each other's ki's. Sort of.

Parts of them anyway. That's why we're skewed opposite of

each other! You've got a piece of me inside you, I've got a piece

of you inside me! When we're together, we're the same!"

Akane knew it to be true then. She didn't know what she could

do to help, but now as Ranma began to gather himself, she could

feel that part of him within her begin to glow with power. That

inner flame was infectious, spreading to the rest of her until she

tingled at the fingertips with heat.

"I know you can do this," he said to her. "I believe in you.

You just gotta believe in yourself."

He held out his right hand as he held her right in his left. She

put her free hand next to his as he directed. He took a deep breath.

He could feel what little power he had to spare rising within him.

It would be enough, dammit!

The fireball of ki energy began to coalesce in their hands. He

was giving it all he had. Akane gasped as she saw it, and more

importantly felt it. There was power there: his power, her power,

their power. She felt it flow out of her in a torrent.

The fireball grew and grew in their hands. It was all Ranma

could do to keep it together, Akane was busy feeding it her

strength. When he had all he could hope to contain and

possibly a little bit more, he flung it forth.

"MOKO TAKABISHA!!!" They cried in unison.

For an instant, if you knew what you were looking for, you

could see the image of a tiger swell around the two. The ki ball

blossomed forth into a lance of power that slammed straight

through the stone wall with runaway freight train force. The

explosion blew them off their feet, and for one panicked moment

Hiro thought a Russian had launched an RPG at them from the

roof.

When the smoke and dust cleared, there was a seven foot

hole blasted through eighteen inches of stone. The edges of the

hole were scorched black. A faint sparkle of light dimmed to

nothingness in the wake of the blast. Clay lowered the Thompson

and stared wide-eyed at the huge hole through the wall.

"Let's go!" Ranma yelled. He sagged against Akane for a

second, and she helped to steady him.

"Are you okay?"

"Just a little shaky," he replied. He started towards the hole.

"Come on, I'll be fine."

Hiro didn't need a written invitation. He fired the last of his

three-inch Nitromags into the corner of the building where several

guards took shelter before running for the hole. The slug blew

apart a large stone, peppering the Russians with rock shrapnel

and convincing them that they had best wait a few moments

before doing anything.

Aerandir felt the buildup and release of ki energy below. The

explosion that blew apart the wall surprised him. He hadn't

expected Saotome to be capable of such a feat in his current

condition.

Palandir was of a like mind.

"It appears Nimatar's opinions of them are well founded," he

said to himself. His hand crackled with power and he directed it

at the fleeing party below. Aerandir realized that he didn't have

much choice at this point, and flung himself towards his brother

with a great cry.

It wasn't Aerandir who connected with Palandir. It was

Anazali's blast that caught the Maia across the chest in a storm

of radiant blue light. Palandir staggered back in midair, stunned,

but not hurt. Anazali's attack wasn't strong enough to hurt him.

He snarled a curse and split his energies into a triple tined fork

of crimson red might. One blast stopped Aerandir cold, making

him wince against the blow but not seriously hurting him. Anazali

was blasted to the ground with a cry of pain. The third blast landed

squarely between Ranma and Akane, and the others.

The pavement was thrown up around them in a ear-splitting

peal of thunder. Angry red motes of light exploded around them,

burning with an icy touch upon exposed skin. Ranma and Akane

stumbled forward, still running, while Hiro and the others were

thrown back.

Hiro, Kuno, and Clay were closest to the blast, and were

knocked silly by the concussion. They fell over face down and

lay there with their ears ringing loudly. It was the only thing that

saved them when Fyodor and his men came charging through the

hole in pursuit of Ranma and Akane.

Fyodor saw the smoking crater the three were laying around

like points on a clock face, and decided that they were quite dead.

He saw Ranma and Akane running away from their friends and

that confirmed his beliefs. He motioned for his men to pursue

them. There was too much cover for a clear shot at them down

the tree lined boulevard.

They ran off in hot pursuit.

When Hiro got to his feet and the dust settled, he could see

Ranma and Akane running away as fast as they could. He could

also see Fyodor and his men chasing them. He yelled a warning

but they were too far away to hear him. He pulled himself painfully

to his knees, waiting for another blast to come raining down upon

them, and praying that one wouldn't. Kuno got back to his feet,

and turned in time to cut down one of the Russians with his sword

as the man ran through the hole.

The scream cut short was enough to get Hiro moving again.

Bullets crashed around him as Kuno stepped away from the hole,

and the rest of the Russians opened up with AK-74s. Clay threw

himself against the wall and began edging away as fast as he could.

All he had left was the Sig. He drew it in one swift motion and

stood in the middle of the hail of bullets and fired twice. His shots

took the closest one square in the chest, pitching him back. He kept

firing, knowing that he was buying time for Ranma and Akane to

escape.

The seventh round was gone and the slide locked back before

he realized what a stupid thing he was doing. A bullet grazed him

across the temple and confirmed it. As he spun around seeing stars

he wished he hadn't done it. When he hit the ground he saw that

Ranma and Akane had put a considerable distance between

themselves and the Embassy. At least he had kept more people

from chasing after them for long enough to let the trail grow cold.

Hope it was worth it, he thought before he blacked out.

Kuno saw Hiro spin around to the ground and felt the splatter

of fine droplets of hot blood upon his face. While Ohata had

never been his friend, he too was a comrade in arms, and he

deserved to be avenged. He would take that vengeance now.

"Oh wretched villains!" He raged at them, as heedless of

the bullets as Hiro had been. (Such courage must only be

recognized in kind.) "Your lives are forfeit! The Blue Thunder

comes for thee!"

A growl arose from the depths of his throat. He raised his sword

on high, and at once sparkling blue flames lit up along the steel. If

he had known that he was doing it, he would have stopped and

stared in awe right there.

But this was Tatewaki Kuno, and when the red rage was

upon him the words 'tunnel vision' failed to describe his lack of

awareness. He charged right at ten men armed with AK-74s with

fifty feet between them. The Russians stood their ground and

dropped into firing stances.

The rifles barked with foot long tongues of flame in the night.

Brass shell casings spurted high into the air in shimmering golden

streams. The sound of so many fully automatic reports was blurred

into an angry roar of gunfire.

They never touched him.

The first one was lifted up into the air with the steely stroke

and flung ten feet away. His uniform became wreathed in eery blue

flames as he hit the ground. The second one took a slash across

the chest and fell back with those same blue flames licking across

his clothes. The third was twisting away in panic and so only lost

an arm at the elbow.

The rest had enough time to scramble away in panic. They did

not face a man but a incoherently babbling demon with a fiery

sword! Kuno bellowed at them to stand and die with some honor.

He shook his flaming sword at them and berated them ceaselessly

for their cowardice. He still hadn't noticed the spectral flames that

danced upon the blade.

Hiro had by this time come around. He had caught the tail end

of Kuno's suicide charge and grit his teeth expecting the swordsman

to get blown into hamburger. Instead the butcher shop belonged to

Tatewaki Kuno. Hiro shook his head in disbelief. This was just like

Korea. His thoughts drifted back to memories of Kuno standing

upright in the middle of artillery barrages unscathed. Of him taunting

machine gun nests as others worked their way in close with

grenades.

And by way, where the hell did those blue flames come from

on his sword? Some terribly rational part of his mind squeaked

in his head.

"How the hell does he do that?" Hiro said to himself. He

brought his hand up to his brow and it came away slicked in blood.

It didn't hurt, yet, and he had more pressing concerns.

Like finding Ranma and Akane before the Russians did.

The truck with Nabiki and Ferguson screeched to a halt next

to Hiro as he stood up. Hiro spun around ready to put his fresh

magazine through them. Nabiki raised her hands to her face,

expecting to get shot.

Hiro lowered the Sig and jumped inside next to Nabiki. She

looked at the dirty, bloody mess he had become, and reached for

something to staunch the free flowing wound at his temple. Hiro

for his part was screaming for Clay and Kuno to get in the truck.

Clay appeared from behind a tree and made his break for the bed.

Kuno looked around him as if he was hearing a ghost, which

considering that he thought Hiro was dead, was exactly what

he was thinking. The sword was no longer alight.

"Kuno you blockhead!" Nabiki yelled at him.

"There isn't time for this!" Hiro yelled. "We gotta go now!"

Kuno stood there with his back to them looking very puzzled.

He couldn't possibly have heard the voice of Nabiki Tendo.

Could he?

Nabiki brought out the big guns.

"Tate-chan!" She called to him sweetly.

This couldn't be a hallucination. Kuno turned around to see

Nabiki Tendo smiling winsomely for him from the window of a

heavy truck. As soon as he figured out that he wasn't seeing things,

her expression became very irate.

"Get in the truck you moron!" She yelled at him.

Kuno turned and ran back for the truck. He saw that Hiro was

still alive, and was about to say something in regards to it when

Nabiki collared him and dragged him halfway through the window.

" Step on it Fergy-baby! " She cried over Kuno's vehement

protestations.

Ferguson put the truck in gear and floored the accelerator. As

the truck sped off down the boulevard, police cars finally showed

up in response to the Embassy's pleas. The gas main continued to

spew fifty foot high flames into the night as they put distance

between themselves and the Russian Embassy.

Palandir wasn't expecting his brother to have fared so well after

his blast. He had thought that he had hurt him. He was mustering

up the power to incinerate the fallen Anazali when he felt another

power surge from behind. He spun around in midair as Aerandir

brought his fists down swiftly to his sides, and the winds spiraled

around the blowtorching gas main, turning it into a tornado of

flame. Aerandir directed the winds again, launching the tornado

at his brother.

Palandir admired his brother's cleverness. He was always a

master of such elemental forces as the wind, never much for the

raw power of an energy blast. His wind attack was subtle in that

Palandir was expecting something flashier, something with a bit

of give-away before it hit.

It took all his will to muster sufficient moisture around him

to keep him from being broiled by the fiery tornado. As it was

he felt the waves of blistering heat all around him, driving him

away as fast as he could fly. He would have to flee or he would

be burnt to a crisp. As long as he was close to the burning gas

main he was vulnerable to more of those tornadoes. He didn't

have a chance at contesting Aerandir for control of the wind.

As he fled his awareness flicked out ahead of him. There

was the unfinished matter of the two Wayfinders. If anyone

needed to die tonight, it was them. Aerandir could wait. When

Sarophan bound the Heart of the World perhaps his brother

would see his mistake. In time they could be reconciled. It might

take a few centuries, but that wasn't an inordinately long amount

of time to wait.

Aerandir knelt over Anazali. She yet lived, though her breathing

was labored. Her eyes had a dull gleam of pain in them.

"That was a stupid thing to do, woman," he told her softly in

the tongue of the Maia. "Had he not split his attack in three parts

you would have been slain."

Anazali looked up with a weary smile for him.

"I had to do something for the living legend of our people."

Aerandir took her up into his arms and carried her gently

towards the gate. The police were arriving, as well as a few fire

trucks called away from the bogus crash site. He walked past

all of them, caressing each man's mind, whispering to them that

there was nothing to see. They let him pass without comment.

He knew that Ranma and Akane had escaped. He could only

hope that they were on their way to the rendezvous point with

Durango and his seaplane for the quick hop across the English

Channel. Palandir was out there as well. He could be searching

for them even as he delayed with Anazali.

A sudden prickling sensation traveled up his spine. He sniffed at

the air then, not liking what he sensed. Anazali wriggled in his arms.

"There, did you feel it too?" She asked him.

"Yes."

"It's coming," she declared. "They won't be leaving Paris yet."

"You are likely correct," he responded.

"Set me down," she told him then. "I can manage for myself

now. You must protect them from Palandir."

Chapter Five

" Where the hell are they? " Heironymous Durango grumbled.

Bettie's Dare was making a slow and low orbital of the vast Bois

de Boulogne Park. They were sufficiently low enough and

screened by the low hills surrounding Paris proper from the air

search radars of Orly and Charles de Gaulle.

Numerous people who walked the park below could see them,

but it was of little matter. Even the emergency authorities would

figure out that the crash was a hoax sooner or later. It was too dark

too make out any details of the plane anyway.

" They'll call, " D-Day said not looking up from the Electronics

Warfare suite. A stray beam of radar energy occasionally hit them,

but not of sufficient strength for the kind of return signal an ATC

would consider to be anything more than ground clutter. He listened

over the headphones, dialing around the various radio and

microwave frequencies to monitor for signs of the rescuers'

progress. (Or detection.)

So far there was mass confusion at the 'crash scene'. Radio

calls for scuba divers and a 100 ton mobile crane were traveling

back and forth across the ether. A frantic report of a gas main

explosion at the Russian Embassy got his attention. He didn't

have enough French to get any details, just enough to pick out

key words.

The cellular phone rang then. Durango fumbled it up with

one hand as he kept the other on the control yoke. He turned

it on and barked, " where are you guys? "

Nabiki's voice replied. " We have a little problem. It's going

to be awhile. "

" What's going on? "

" We got Ranma out, but we lost them in the confusion. We're

trying to find them now. We'll call you when we can. "

Nabiki hung up.

" Shit! " Durango cursed. He looked up to the sky. " I knew

this wasn't going to be easy, but work with me here, okay?! I

thought we were doing the right thing here! "

D-Day looked at him after this outburst.

" Since when did you get religious? "

" Since never, but a little intercession couldn't hurt right now. "

Bettie's Dare continued its impatient orbit of the park.

Ranma and Akane were about to stop running when they

noticed that Fyodor and his men were only two blocks behind.

The Ukrainian and his men were gaining on them. They couldn't

see Hiro or the others anywhere, and suddenly wondered when

they had lost them.

Speaking of lost, they had no idea where they were. They were

just running now. Ranma doubted that he had the kind of

horsepower left to try and fight them. He would if it came

down to it of course, but he wasn't very optimistic about his

chances.

Maybe if I had a chance to rest.

He tugged at Akane's hand and pulled her towards the river.

There was a small park here, perhaps they could lose them through

it and backtrack. Akane followed after, glad at least for bringing

running shoes. She had almost procured a pair of combat boots

like Hiro's for this. Ranma was barefoot. At least he was used to

running barefoot.

"Any ideas?" He asked her.

"What are you asking me for?" She replied with nary a huff.

She was thankful for keeping in shape during their time with the

Professor. The running was paying off.

" 'Cause at the moment I'm fresh out," he declared. "I guess

we can just run all night until we find Hiro and the others."

They ducked through the park and twisted past tress and

jumped over hedgerows. They did everything they could think

of to confuse their pursuers. The park was smaller than they

hoped though, and it soon ended with a broad thoroughfare about

a quarter mile from the Arc de Triomphe. The Seine flowed

leisurely before them, and the twin lights of two raging fires

glowed in the darkened Paris sky. The more distant of the two

began to fade, but the gas main fire still filled the night with an

orange glow.

Fyodor had anticipated their move, and sent three of his men

branching off towards the river while he and the rest stayed on

the trail. When Ranma and Akane burst free of the park they

were only fifty meters away from them.

AK-74s and an MP-5 spat a few dozen rounds in their

direction. With the Russians firing on the run, and Ranma and

Akane moving targets, the most they did was kick up fragments

of stone and macadam at their feet and make a lot of pretty

sparks. The noise did however direct Fyodor and the rest on which

way the couple had run.

"Will you two shut up!" Hiro yelled to Nabiki and Kuno, who

were busy yelling at each other. He thought he heard something.

His outburst silenced them long enough for them to hear the

second burst of gunfire in the distance. Ferguson craned his neck

out of the window to locate the source.

"There, ya see?" He snarled at them. "Shut the hell up so we

can follow after that noise." He elbowed the back window out and

pulled himself gingerly through into the bed of the truck. He saw

Clay sitting there, he was not very content at the moment.

" I'm not cut out for the commando business I'm afraid, " the

parapsychologist remarked.

" You did fine sir, " Hiro replied. " Did you get hurt? "

" Nothing compared to you, Hiro. "

Hiro wiped at his temple again. It was starting to hurt, but

looked far worse than it was. A few stitches at the most. Now if

it had been a centimeter to the right...

A third burst of gunfire perked up his ears. He thumped on the

roof of the six by six truck to get Ferguson's attention.

" To the left Mister Ferguson! Turn left! "

" I bloody well heard it too, Hiro, " Ferguson replied, and

jerked the wheel to the left.

Hiro checked his Sig fully loaded. He was out of ammo for

anything else. Only five magazines too. At the rate he had been

using ammunition, it wouldn't last. He turned over his shoulder

to look at Clay.

" You still have that pistol, sir? "

Clay offered it up to him with the three magazines he had left.

Hiro took the other Sig and smiled. He tucked the extra Sig

magazines in his satchel.

"Just call me 'Pistolero'," he said to himself, holding the two

P-220s up in a gunfighter stance. Gods help those Russians when

he got within range.

They only had one way to go now. Ranma and Akane

sprinted for the bridge across the Seine to the Left Bank.

Fyodor and his men pursued them brandishing their rifles

openly before the throngs of curious that came out of their

homes following the blackout.

Fyodor knocked them over whenever they got in his way. He

wouldn't let Ranma and his fianc饠get away. When the crowds

became too thick to run through, he cut loose with burst of rifle

fire and they obliged him with screams and lots of diving for cover.

Not having a police presence was at last working for them now,

he had no fears of running into a Gendarme with them all over

at the Notre Dame Cathedral.

One of his men blasted away at the two again. He succeeded

in putting out a bunch of automobile windows, but little else.

The gunfire rightly inspired Ranma and Akane to run a little faster.

The Left Bank was on a separate power grid than across the

river. Thus it was still lit. Ornate street lamps glowed for them,

which would have been very pretty to look at and even a little

romantic to stroll under with the love of your life at your side if

there weren't a bunch of bloodthirsty Russians led by one

particularly psychotic Ukrainian hot on your heels. He looked

to Akane. At least he had the love of his life by his side.

At first Ranma didn't realize what he was running towards.

He was too busy trying to stay on his feet and avoid all of the

people that were outside to watch the disturbances in the city.

Fyodor and his goon squad shooting at them at least got the

citizens out of their way.

It was when Akane gasped in awe that he looked up. Not so far

ahead of them was the Eiffel Tower. His nightmare came back to

him in a rush. Every fiber in his being wanted to drag him in some

other direction.

The sudden appearance of Palandir above them gave him other

ideas. Like ducking for cover. He and Akane made a sudden juke

to the right as Palandir rained down a vicious blast of crimson heat

death at them. The blast dug a meter wide trench through the street.

Fyodor and his men pointed up into the sky and began shooting at

Palandir.

The range was long, only a single round zipped through the

Maia. He clutched at his chest as blood spurted forth from the front

and the rear of his body. He felt the round pass straight through

him. It punctured his right lung, which was bad in and of itself,

but at least the tiny 5.45mm round hadn't struck bone. He could

cope.

He coughed up a little blood, willing away the sudden fire in his

chest cavity from the collapsed lung. The pain at least fueled his

rage. He called up a bolt of hellfire from within him heedless of

the fact that he might need it to heal himself. This was the first

time one of these worms had injured him in a very long time.

That insult would not go unaddressed.

"DIE!!!" He told the offending rifleman. The hellfire spurted

forth from his hand to strike the Russian square in the chest. The

man burst into spectral flames and fell to the ground writhing in

agony. Fyodor and the rest dove for cover as the man's dying

screams echoed across the well to do neighborhood. There was

just a pile of ashes when it was over.

Palandir sank to the ground. It was too much to remain in the

air and try and repair the damage within him at the same time. He

watched Ranma and Akane sprint away like rabbits and gurgled

an impotent curse at them. He had spent the last of his offensive

strength in that wasteful lesson upon the rifleman.

Fyodor looked up to the sky, but the man was gone. He knew

it was the same man who had nearly killed him at the Dniester

river. The same man who had been ghosting Doctor Casimir's

research group, and his own men for months.

Cautiously he got to his feet. Upon seeing that no bolts of light

struck him down, the survivors joined him. They made their way

forward, using the parked cars for cover. When he got close to

where the man had floated, he saw a fresh pool of blood, still

warm.

He bleeds... Fyodor thought to himself. The others saw

the blood and drew the same conclusion as himself. We can

kill this man if he shows his face again. We must simply be faster

on the draw.

" Keep after them, " he told his men. " But keep an eye out

for Georgi's killer. "

Ranma and Akane didn't know that Palandir was wounded.

They kept running in the only direction they had available. That

was in the direction of the Eiffel Tower.

Once they scrambled across the marble tiles a hundred yards

from the Tower they realized that while Palandir was not chasing

them anymore, Fyodor and his goon squad were. The ironwork

of the Tower suddenly sounded like a good hiding spot.

Maybe I could take them out one or two at a time up there.

No way I could do it out here in the open. I'd just get the both of

us shot.

"Come on," he told her. "To the tower."

She followed him across the marble tiles and skirted around

a large pool. The fountains were spraying and cheerfully lit with

white, blue, and red lights. The massive ironwork frame of the

Eiffel Tower towered three hundred meters high before them.

The elevators were shut down, and the doors to the stairwells

up the four legs of the tower were locked. A few twenty-something

Parisians watched them scramble around for a way up in

amusement. Finally Ranma got mad enough to rip a door off

it's hinges. The Parisians decided to leave quickly at this point.

He and Akane clambered up the winding iron stairs as fast as

they could. The first observation deck was a good ways up. When

they got there they were starting to get winded.

"How far have we been running?" Akane asked him with a pant.

"Four, five miles. Plus all the fighting, running up these damn

stairs." Ranma paused to catch his breath. It was then that he

realized that he had caught a piece of shrapnel from those

grenades. Either that or piece of the pavement that Palandir

blew up right behind them. His back was sore, and fresh blood

came away from his hand.

Akane gasped in fright.

"Ranma!" She cried.

"I'm all right. I don't think it's bad." He told her. "I just

noticed it myself."

She wasn't buying it. She turned him around and gingerly

lifted the tattered tuxedo jacket and shirt to inspect the wound.

There was a piece of steel wire just sticking out of the small of

his back, to the left of his spine. It was just like the piece Hiro

had pulled out of his leg. She couldn't tell how much was inside,

and was afraid to touch it for fear of hurting Ranma even worse.

"Oh my God, Ranma. There's a piece of metal in your back."

She said in a frightened voice. She thought of him huddling over

her when those grenades had exploded. The shrapnel was meant

for her.

"I said I'll be okay. It ain't the first time for me you know.

It's just another scar to add to the collection, that's all."

It would be nice if it would stop happening though...

"It's the first time I've had to know about it," she told him

crossly. "You know I worry about you just as much as you

worry about me."

He looked softly at her. He knew she cared, but there was a

time and a place for it. This wasn't the time and it wasn't the place.

"I know you do Akane. But right now we gotta think of a place

to hide from these guys. Come on." He took her by the hand.

The first observation deck was also a restaurant. It was also

locked. Ranma had committed enough property damage for one

night. There were other places they could hide.

"Higher?" Akane asked as they came to the next set of stairs.

"Yeah, that way we'll be able to hold them off easier." He

gestured to the way the four legs of the tower gracefully arched

inwards towards each other at the top. "If we get lucky they won't

look for us here. But don't count on it, 'cause so far our luck ain't

been so good."

" They could have gone anywhere by now! " Fyodor

thundered. The park was big and open, but with their head start

they could have gone in any direction and disappeared from

sight by now.

The gaggle of Parisians ran by. He stopped them short with a

quick burst of rifle fire. He turned to Mikhail, who spoke French,

and pointed at the college students. Mikhail asked them if they had

seen a young Japanese couple, and that they had best answer as

quickly and as honestly as possible. Fyodor brandished his rifle

and scowled at them from beneath his dark forelocks for effect.

The students pointed frantically at the Eiffel Tower. Fyodor

looked at the imposing structure and nodded. With a quick word

to Mikhail and the others he started stomping off towards the

tower. The students huddled together, fully expecting to be shot.

When the last of the Russians turned his back, they ran away as

fast and as quietly as they could.

Ferguson didn't need to follow the sounds of gunfire anymore.

He just asked all of the frightened Parisians on the streets a few

direct questions and was rewarded with the direction they had run

and how long ago that was. The hard part was getting through the

traffic.

It seemed everyone in the city was driving around to see what

was going on. Everyone was talking about the airplane crash they

heard about over battery operated radios. Now there was a terrorist

bombing at the Russian Embassy or something. A gas line had

exploded and threatened that part of the city.

Hiro stood in the bed of the six by six with his pistols lowered

in hand. They were catching up, but how far away were the

Russians? At least no one had said anything about two Japanese

being killed.

" A little traffic control if you would please, Hiro, " Ferguson

grunted as the cars moving across the Seine wouldn't let them get

by and onto the bridge.

Hiro complied. He jumped out of the truck, favoring his

wounded leg, and stumped over to the offending automobile

drivers. He was in no mood to mince around with pleasantries.

His friends lives' were in danger.

He casually smashed the driver's side window of the first car

trying to cut them off and jammed one of the Sigs against the

driver's nose. With the other Sig in hand he waved the truck

through. The driver of the car began to babble in terror. Hiro

screamed at him to shut up in Japanese and dug the pistol in

a little deeper. The man shut up.

Ferguson rolled by.

" Thank you, Hiro. "

" No problem, Mister Ferguson, " Hiro smiled.

When the truck was on the bridge Hiro removed the pistol from

the man's nose. There was a little .45 caliber sized circular

indentation pressed into the end. He bowed for the man and

jogged at a limp to the truck and hopped into the bed. The truck

sped off across the bridge. Nabiki gave him a wink and a grin

through the broken back window of the cab.

It was only when the queue of cars behind him began honking

and yelling at him that he remembered to start driving again.

They got across the bridge. About that time the Parisian

students who had narrowly escaped Fyodor with their lives

came barreling through. Hiro and Ferguson had seen enough of

that in the last few minutes to know that they were on the right

track.

Ferguson yelled for them to stop. They kept going. Hiro waved

the pistols in their faces and they came to a weary halt, not

believing their ill fortune this evening. Ferguson asked them the

standard questions. They replied that a bunch of rifle toting thugs

had also asked them about Ranma and Akane. Then they pointed

to the Eiffel Tower.

Ferguson thanked them for their help and floored the

accelerator.

The students decided to call it a night before someone did

decide to shoot them at the end of the interview.

Nabiki decided that now would be a good time to call Durango.

She picked up the cellular phone and began dialing. Kuno was

sulking in his seat next to her. He had wanted to swim in the hot

flowing rivers of his enemies' blood, but so far they had all just

run away the minute he started hacking up their companions. It

just wasn't fair that no one would give him a stand up fight.

" Now where the hell are you? " Heironymous Durango

asked her in a grouchy voice as he picked up the phone on his end.

" No need to be rude, " Nabiki berated him. " We're coming

up on the Eiffel Tower. Can you land in the river to pick us up? "

" Sister, I can put this boat down anywhere you like, " came

Durango's self-assured reply. " Did you get them? "

" Not yet, but we're going to right now. You'd better hurry

though. "

" I copy. We're on the way. "

Nabiki hung up.

" Okay, we're cooking with gas now! " Durango told D-Day.

" How's it looking for the river near the Eiffel Tower? "

D-Day consulted his chart. " Looks good. Nice and wide. About

a quarter mile stretch between bridges. "

" Goddamn! " Durango cried. " How about a challenge

already? "

" I'd settle for just pulling this one off now, man. "

Durango had to concede that point. While the aerial phase of

this operation had gone off without a hitch (he knocked on a piece

of the plywood divider panel), the ground phase had gone straight

to hell. Drinking a stiff snort of the Professor's brandy and smoking

a good Churchill sounded really great right now.

He nosed the throttles forward a bit and pulled the Catalina

into a nice wide flat turn. He didn't have the altitude to try

anything terribly fancy. He set course straight for the Eiffel

Tower, another Paris landmark someone had thoughtfully

illuminated for him. Then he lit up one of his Don Diego

Churchills, sucked in a huge drag, and then began chewing on

the end as the smoke spilled out of his grinning mouth.

Ranma and Akane were up to the second observation deck now.

It was about halfway up the tower. They stopped to rest for a few

minutes. At least they would be able to see Fyodor and his goon

squad approaching.

What they didn't know was that Fyodor and his goon squad

were already there. They had missed their approach as they

climbed the many steps to the second deck. They also didn't

know that Mikhail knew where the circuit breakers for the

elevators were.

So when two of Fyodor's men stepped out of the elevator with

rifles at the ready, you can imagine Ranma and Akane's surprise.

They froze in place. The two men began to fan out, covering

each other with their rifles. The tower made the occasional settling

noise, even after over a century of standing, and the two would

carefully investigate each one. In one of those occupied moments

Ranma pulled Akane quietly up into the ironwork structure

When one of them nosed close, Ranma carefully made his

way along the ironwork and hung upside down over the man.

His hands lashed out, snapping the man's neck instantly. The

Russian slumped to the deck.

Ranma pulled himself back up into the ironwork. Hopefully

Akane hadn't seen that. He may have gotten over his reluctance to

kill when necessary, but it was never an act he was proud of.

His partner lost sight of him and called out softly in Russian.

If Ranma had even a clue about that language he might have said

something softly in reply to allay the man's suspicions. Instead he

waited very patiently. This was for Akane's sake he told himself.

He reached down to snap his neck when he got close. At that

moment the piece of shrapnel in his back shifted, and a white hot

sliver of pain shot out to the ends of all his nerves. It was too

sudden and too intense to hold back a gasp of pain.

The Russian jumped back and cut loose with a long burst

above him.

Bullets zinged and whined around him with bright firework

flowers of red and orange sparks. The Russian had misguessed

his position, but in the spray of light from the long muzzle flash

he saw where Ranma hung.

He dropped back and corrected his aim. Ranma flew out of

the girders and somersaulted onto the ground. The second burst

went high, ringing across the iron work. Ranma charged the man

before he could get a third burst off.

He took the man with a head butt in the midsection. The man

nearly dropped his rifle as Ranma slammed him against a beam.

Then his back spasmed again and he lost his leverage.

The Russian dropped his rifle down hard on Ranma's back.

The young martial artist felt his knees go weak and he slumped to

the deck. The Russian threw a loose knife-edge kick that caught

him across the jaw. Ranma flew backwards and splayed along the

deck.

The Russian leveled his rifle to shoot Ranma through the chest

when Akane cried out in her most wrathful voice:

"DROP IT OR I'LL KILL YOU!!!"

It was at this point that the Russian noticed that Akane was

pointing an AK-74 at him. She had screamed at him in Japanese,

which he didn't understand a word of, but the rifle made her intent

clear enough. Ranma looked up from the floor in shock.

She doesn't know how to use one of those! Does she...?

The Russian decided she was serious enough to use the rifle.

He spun on her and squeezed the trigger. Nothing! The rifle

was empty!

Her body was moving too fast for her mind to register this fact.

Akane closed her eyes and jerked at her trigger.

The AK-74 exploded into a fusillade of 5.45mm copper-jacketed

lead. Shell casings spilled all over the ironwork. She had no firm

concept of recoil, as the only guns she had ever really seen in action

before this night had been on television or the movies.

Thus when she began hosing her Russian-made heater at the

man, she quickly lost control. The assault rifle belched out its

storm of fully automatic fire totally out of control. She tried to

walk it back in the right direction, but just kept throwing the

bullets around in crazy circles. She was clamped down on the

trigger in panic, too busy trying to hold onto the damn thing to

realize that if she let off the trigger it would stop on its own.

Guess not! Ranma thought suddenly in terror.

He threw himself into a fetal position in the hopes that the

wild ricochets she was causing wouldn't hit him. Spent rounds

crashed and whined all over the second deck. The stroboscopic

flashes of gunfire made for interesting lighting effects upon the

iron framework, but Ranma was too busy fearing for his life to

appreciate it.

About three seconds later the rifle was empty.

The Russian slid down the girder to the deck and lay very still.

Akane dropped the rifle and stared at the man in shock and

self loathing.

Ranma got back to his feet and looked at the Russian. Akane

was close to tears at this point, but something was very wrong here.

There should have been enough blood and gore splattered all over

the place to look like a slaughterhouse. He crept over to the man.

"Don't touch him," Akane gasped.

Ranma looked down to the man.

Jeez... Full auto at point blank range and she couldn't hit

him once... He must have passed out from fright.

Then the smell hit him. He jerked his face away and tried

not to gag.

Yep... He was scared all right!

He stood up and laughed at her.

"Akane, you are such a klutz!" He said with a wry smile.

"What?!" She spluttered.

"Next time let the professional handle it."

Akane began to realize that she hadn't killed the man. Her

sense of relief was suddenly cut short as her brain engaged again.

"Professional? If I hadn't done that you'd be dead now!"

She protested.

"You damn near killed me yourself with that thing." He nudged

at the depleted rifle with his foot. "Where'd you get it anyway?"

"From the guy whose neck you broke," she replied off-handedly.

He suddenly flushed with shame.

She punched him lightly in the arm. "I don't think badly of you

Ranma..." She said quietly. "You did what had to be done..."

"Come on," he said then, not wishing to discuss it further. He

snatched up the other guy's rifle and the few spare magazines.

The smell was really bad now. He decided the best thing he could

do was leave him there after taking everything he might use to fight

with. "This is bound to attract attention."

Fyodor and the others converged on the elevators from the

third and highest deck. At a radio prompt from Fyodor, Mikhail

secured the elevators from the first deck down so they couldn't

escape the tower. There was no radio contact from Sergei or from

Anton, and that was a bad sign.

Ranma and Akane took the elevator down to the first deck. If

the Russians could use them, they weren't going to argue about it.

Hopefully they could sneak away.

The doors opened onto the first deck. A Russian was there with

his back towards them. Another was standing on the other side of

the first, facing the elevator. He yelled, Ranma yelled, Akane

yelled. The first Russian turned around in time to catch Ranma's

fist in his face. His knees went out as Akane stabbed at the 'door

close' button. The doors slid shut and up they went.

Bullets slammed into the elevator, but with all of the iron

framework around them, they were just ricochets.

The truck stopped at the base of the tower. Hiro wasted no

time in shooting the Russian who stood guard over a service

shack next to one of the massive legs. It was Mikhail, and now

he had a couple hydrashoks in his gut to worry about. He clutched

at his stomach as Hiro kicked away his rifle.

The man wasn't in any shape to answer questions, so he and

Kuno looked at the stairway door ripped off its hinges and drew

their own conclusions. Hiro threw the rifle to Nabiki, who passed

it immediately to Ferguson. The scientist studied the weapon for a

few moments before setting it on the dash.

" I don't know how to use it either, lass, " he explained to her.

" That's why we have Hiro. "

They came out on the second deck again. For a minute Ranma

considered trying the stairs, but they all passed the first deck in big

wide open areas. It was possible to cover three legs of the tower

from one corner. That was asking to get shot.

As the doors opened, Ranma took a quick look around. There

was nothing in front of the doors. He poked his head out, and

Fyodor jerked him out of the elevator the rest of the way. The

man's huge hand neatly palmed the top of Ranma's head as he

did so. As Ranma flew across the observation deck, his rifle

spilled over the side and was gone.

Fyodor's partner grabbed at Akane. She responded by cold-

cocking him with a shot to the jaw. The Russian made one startled

cry before flying into Fyodor, and knocking his rifle from his hand.

Akane launched a desperate kick at the weapon, punting it neatly

over the side.

The big Ukrainian backhanded her in response. She flew against

the elevator with a cry of pain. Fyodor palmed her head as well

and threw her in Ranma's direction. Ranma caught her up in his

arms and kept her from joining the two rifles over the side.

"I think we're in trouble," he whispered to her. This was starting

to look chillingly like their favorite nightmare. He turned over his

shoulder and looked out across Paris.

Definitely looks familiar, he thought darkly.

"I don't need a weapon," Fyodor menaced in badly accented

Japanese. He popped his knuckles and started walking towards

them.

Ranma sighed tiredly. He was just about out of gas at this point.

He had maybe a minute of no holds barred fight left in him. Keeping

Akane at his back, he assumed a fighting stance appropriate for

facing off against Godzilla.

As Fyodor closed the range, two more of his men appeared

from the elevators. They had come from the first deck obviously.

" Mikhail is hit, " one of them stammered. " He may be dead! "

Fyodor stopped. " What?! " He bellowed, still keeping his eyes

on Ranma. " Mikhail's on the ground! How could he be dead? "

" He isn't answering on the radio! "

Ranma began to feel a peculiar tingling sensation at the base of

his spine. At first he thought it was the piece of metal stuck in him.

But when his tongue began to tingle he began to tremble with anger.

The wind began to pick up around them.

Not now! Anytime but now! I don't need this kind of

distraction!

Akane touched him worriedly. She could feel it too.

Fyodor decided that they had no time to play around. If Mikhail

was dead then the friends of these two were on their way. He gestured

to the two Japanese who were obviously quivering with fear.

" Shoot them and let's get out of here, " he ordered them.

The two leveled their rifles at Ranma and Akane.

"I love you, Ranma," she whispered desperately.

"It ain't over yet."

Hiro and Kuno charged up the stairs at the run. Hiro couldn't

even feel his leg wound anymore he was so charged up. Hiro had the

lead, and body checked one of the gunmen. His burst cut loose into the

overhead and he fell to the ground. The second one spun around in time

to catch Kuno's katana in the belly. The swordsman opened him up like

a can of spam.

"Go, Akane!" Ranma yelled, pushing her away from him. Sparkles of

light began to dance around them.

Fyodor was too fast for them. He palmed Akane by the face and

threw her over the side of the rail. Ranma twisted backwards to catch

her arm and was pulled over the side with her. They fell towards

unforgiving concrete hundreds of feet below.

"NO!!!" Hiro screamed. He emptied both Sigs into Fyodor's chest.

Every round struck dead on, but the giant didn't even flinch. Hiro

stared dumbfounded.

"Body armor," Fyodor replied smugly in his mangled Japanese.

"No coat of mail shall withstand the blade of the Blue Thunder!"

Kuno bellowed. Upon seeing Ranma and Akane plummet over the side his

heart twisted in rage beyond imagining. Once again his katana burst

forth with spectral blue flames, though once again he was unaware of

that fact.

Fyodor knew a few kevlar panels weren't going to stop a katana.

Particularly one that suddenly burst into flames. He wished now that

he had waited long enough in Monaco to kill this raving samurai lunatic.

The man is relentless!

He did the only thing he could in that situation, which was pick

up the stunned Maxim and throw him at Kuno.

The swordsman lashed out with his blade so swiftly that Maxim

was diced into bite sized pieces before his mortal remains could hit

the ground. It was just enough of a delay for Fyodor to make a

break for the stairs. He drew a Tokarev and emptied it ineffectually

at them in escape. Kuno tried to pursue but slipped on Maxim and

lost his balance enough for the Ukrainian to get away.

The wind was bitter and cold and just getting stronger.

Hiro began to notice the sparkles of light in the air. Then he

heard a very faint cry for help.

He looked over the side to see Ranma hanging by one arm

from the framework, with Akane clutching tightly to his chest.

They were a long way down.

"Saotome! Akane-chan!" he cried.

Ranma couldn't hold on for much longer. He was too weak

and wasted, and in addition to having himself to worry about

there was Akane weighing him down even more. He could feel

his grip loosening more and more. It was about a hundred feet

to the ground. He looked up to Hiro high above him. That was

about two hundred and fifty feet of climb, assuming he could

get a foot hold somewhere. Which he couldn't.

The light began to sparkle around them. He grit his teeth in

anger. Who cared if the next event was here and now? They

were gonna die and it wouldn't make any difference. The wind

became even stronger now, rocking them back and forth as

they hung.

"I can't look," Akane said in a soft voice.

"It ain't over yet," Ranma growled. He tried to make himself

believe it.

The sparkling lights became even brighter, more numerous, it

was just a matter of moments now before the next event unfolded

around them.

Ferguson felt the wind pick up. He looked up at the tower and

saw that it was shimmering faintly with a golden light. Motes of

color began to appear around it. Even Nabiki noticed it.

" What the heck is that? " She asked.

" It's the next event! " Clay cried from the bed of the truck.

He stood up and began to open himself to it as he had many times

before.

" Bloody hell! " Ferguson yelled. " We're missing it! My

equipment! "

"I got an idea," he told her as they nearly fell. He clamped

down hard on the girder and garnered them an extra few seconds

of purchase.

Akane was ready to hear him tell her they could fly.

"We're gonna fly," he told her.

Well, not quite ready for that.

She gave him a hopeless look in response. The wind was raging

around them now. They were oscillating pretty badly.

"No I mean it!" Ranma protested. "Anazali said I could draw

on this kinda stuff, that I just didn't know I was doing it. I don't

have the power left to try this now, and I don't think you do either,

but what about when the event gets here? You know how much

power there is when that happens."

She could already feel the enormous buildup of energy around

them.

The event unfolded then with a flash of brilliant white light. A

rush of wind tore them free from the girder, and for a moment they

were actually heading upwards. Then they began their fall towards

the ground.

"Hold on tight!" Ranma cried. He had all the power he needed

in that moment.

" There's your intercession, man! " D-Day yelled as the Eiffel

Tower lit up before them. A column of golden light rose high into

a bank of clouds from the tower. Paris was aglow with the light,

truly living up to its name.

Durango grinned and put his sunglasses on.

"Oh God!" Nabiki cried as she looked up and saw Ranma and

Akane falling through waves of golden light.

This is the only flying trick I know... Ranma thought in that

instant before release. Akane could feel the air get very cold around

them as he drew the energy in for his blast.

He held onto Akane with one arm and thrust the other up into the

air as they plummeted straight down.

"HIRYU SHOTEN HA!!!"

He dropped his arm savagely towards the ground. The Dragon

Cyclone blowtorched through them and spiraled towards the ground.

It rebounded then and shot back up at them. Ranma nearly lost his

hold on Akane as the blast wave struck them.

Now they were flying. Flying straight through blinding amounts

of energy. Ten times what they'd endured in the Alhambra. It was

like being in the center of a brilliant and comfy warm sun.

In fact they were flying straight up the now golden sides of the

Eiffel Tower. Very fast. Hiro saw them coming and reached out with

his arms. Kuno held onto Hiro to keep him from going over the side.

At the very limit of his reach he caught them.

Ranma and Akane couldn't feel it, because they were somewhere

and somewhen else right then.

They saw an island nation in the very zenith of its existence.

Radiant people like Aerandir and Anazali walked the wide tree lined

streets. Baroque flying machines formed like butterflies, birds, and

even more exotic creatures floated silently upon the air.

They found themselves standing in a great public square filled

with people. Before them was an enormous pyramid of white stone. Golden

light flowed from the top of the pyramid and bathed everything in its

radiance.

Akane turned, and there were the stone lion fountains of the

Alhambra standing next to them. Water continued to flow from

their mouths as they spoke to them. The water flowed around them

and then seemed to fade away.

"Watch," they told them. "Learn."

They looked back to the pyramid, which began to shimmer and

quake. People began to look around in distress. The radiant glow of

light began to change colors to an angry red. They watched as a

hundred men in flowing robes scaled the pyramid at a run. They

raised their hands to the sky, perhaps praying, perhaps fighting what

was happening.

It was to no avail.

The pyramid exploded with the force of a hydrogen bomb. As the

blast wave rolled out to consume the island, Ranma and Akane saw

that the people did not disintegrate, but were instead drawn into the

fiery core of the blast. Everyone was sucked into the fireball even as

the seas drowned the entire island.

The lions were weeping water from their eyes as well as their

mouths.

"We are trapped in the Heart of the World," they told them. "But

you must not free us."

Ranma and Akane looked at them in puzzlement.

"If you're trapped, then why don't you want to be free?" Akane

asked.

The stone lions looked at her. "To free us would mean to repeat

this tragedy. Never again."

The fireball faded away from their eyes. A small white pyramid

appeared then before them. Ranma could see into it, and he suddenly

knew how perfectly it was formed. He didn't know how he knew,

but he was getting used to the practice of ideas being planted into his

head.

He also knew how important it was for the pyramid to remain

flawless within. And for some odd reason how important it was for

the pyramid, no, something corrected him; for the prism to be flawed

within. Very important. Part of his consciousness slapped him around

and told him to pay attention to that last part.

The world exploded back into view around them. Hiro heaved

with all his might and pulled them onto the observation deck. The

night sky went dark again and the wind died away around them.

Hiro held the two of them close to him. They trembled in his

embrace at the power and vision they had experienced. The Eiffel

Tower's radiance faded away and returned to its regular black iron

self. Kuno stood guard over them, his sword no longer burning.

Bettie's Dare was twenty minutes from the McFogg estate.

Ferguson and Clay sat on chairs and dozed idly. Kuno knelt on the

floor of the cabin and meditated upon his sword. Nabiki cleaned

up the bloody mess that was Hiro's face, clucking motherly every

time he winced. The gash on his temple was only going to need a

few stitches. Hiro carried on like he was mortally wounded.

Durango poked his head in to check on everyone while D-Day

had the wheel. They were bloody, they were hurting, and they were

very tired. One thing was certain however: When they looked to the

other side of the cabin, what they saw told each of them that the

price they'd paid was worth it.

Akane cradled Ranma in her lap. He was fast asleep, the first

decent sleep he'd had since his abduction. She was happy to hold

him close and occasionally whisper something in his ear. He never

responded, but he had a deep and contented smile.

End of Part Eight

Author's Notes:

1) I had meant for a lot more to be discussed in this installment than

space permitted. Part 8 is really the rescue of Ranma now. I

suppose if you're happy then I'm happy. Part 9 was my buffer

installment against my dreaded literary elephantitus anyway.

2) I would like to thank Big T of Fission Park for his assistance with

the procedures for declaring in-flight emergencies and with general

Air Traffic Control protocols. Squawking '7700' with your transponder

is an emergency signal. 121.5 MHz is the distress radio frequency.

3) I would also like to thank Front 242, Gravity Kills, Metallica,

Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult for their invaluable inspiration

while I wrote this. For your own information, the original draft

of Part 8 was much bloodier because of them. Later I felt that

the violence needed to be toned down, although the recent spate

of snuff-fics on the FFML may have desensitized some of you.

4) Last of all I thank my proofreaders and Men in Europe, who

kindly pointed out all of my mistakes. These would be Jerome in

Paris, Chris Rijk in London (even if we rarely agree, thanks

whole bunches), and Bridget Engmen with her fine toothed comb.

(Even if she isn't in Europe, I'm including her anyway.)

5) You didn't really think I was going to have Akane kill someone did

you? Shame on you!

Free the Nukes!


	9. Chapter 9

_  
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

CHASING THE WIND Part Nine: Gather the Storm

Ranma 1/2 is the creation and Property of Rumiko Takahashi and Shogakukan/KITTY TV/VIZ.

WARNING:  
This work of fanfiction contains explicit sexual material. If this isn't your cup of tea, or if you are under the age of 18, skip Chapter Two and go straight to Chapter Three.

Synopsis

Ranma and Akane are caught up in the middle of a scientific pursuit of global electromagnetic events. The event in Nerima affects both of their ki's, causing them to lose martial focus and suffer terrible nightmares. The only way to keep the nightmares at bay is to stay in close proximity when they sleep.  
Ranma contacts his friend from the Second Korean War, Hiro Ohata, who is working for the scientists as a 'Man Friday.' Hiro arranges for them to come to England. Ranma and Akane join Professor McFogg, the leader of the scientists, in his search for events.  
They also run into a mysterious woman who has been following them. She calls herself Anazali, and hints that in the search for these events, not only will it repair their disrupted ki's, but will also end Ranma's Jusenkyo curse. After experiencing events in Maes Howe Scotland, and Granada Spain, they receive strange and disturbing visions.  
Nabiki, Tatewaki Kuno, and Ukyo are abducted by agents of a Russian research team led by Doctor Grigory Casimir. Casimir is unaware of the abductions, which are ordered by his former KGB assistant, Ivan Tarchenko. Tarchenko conducts an interrogation and torture of Ukyo to learn of the whereabouts of Ranma and Akane.  
Kuno breaks them loose and the three of them flee across the southern Ukraine. They are pursued by the huge and vicious Ukrainian, Fyodor. Fyodor nearly kills them along the Dniester River, but they are rescued by a man named Palandir.  
Palandir takes them to his brother Aerandir, who delivers the three to his uncle aboard his ketch, Kelebros. Aerandir befriends the three during their short journey to an island in the Aegean Sea. He also tells them that he is an 8000 year old descendant of an ancient and now destroyed civilization. He also warns them that his uncle is attempting to harness the incalculable powers of the Earth, known as the Heart of the World; an act that will surely cause a disaster for the Earth. The Heart of the World becomes tangible in 88 year cycles, and is fact the climax of the cycle of events the scientists are chasing.  
Aerandir takes Kuno and Nabiki with him to Monaco, with Ukyo electing to stay behind and rest. Kuno seeks to fulfill his oath to Ranma, and Nabiki accompanies him if only to 'look after him.' Aerandir has an invitation to the Prince of Monaco's Grand Charity Ball.  
Professor McFogg is also invited, and takes Ranma and Akane with him to Monaco. Ranma and Akane are reunited with Nabiki and Kuno, and exchange stories. That night at the Ball, Ranma proposes marriage to Akane, but before either can share their joyous decision, they are attacked by Fyodor. Fyodor succeeds in capturing Ranma, But is driven off by Hiro and Kuno before he can get Akane. Doctor Casimir is outraged by this act, and joins Professor McFogg's group.  
Working feverishly to find where Ranma has been taken, the group plans a rescue before Tarchenko finishes with him and has him killed. Ranma is discovered to be kept in the Russian Embassy in Paris. A rescue force of Hiro, Kuno, Nabiki, Akane, Clay, Ferguson, Aerandir, and Anazali go after him. A fierce battle is fought between all parties, including one between the brothers Aerandir and Palandir. Fyodor pursues the escaping Ranma and Akane to the Eiffel Tower, where he throws them over the side. The two cling to the ironwork frame, hanging on for their lives when the next event hits the Eiffel Tower. Fyodor is driven off, and Ranma and Akane are rescued by Hiro and Kuno. During the event Ranma and Akane receive a vision wherein the souls of the destroyed civilization reveal that they are trapped within the Heart of the World, but no attempt must be made to harness it to free them. They tell the two that they must stop any attempts to do so. The rescue ends with them flying back to England aboard the Catalina seaplane Bettie's Dare. Ryoga Hibiki wanders on through a jungle with no idea where he is. He meets a strange golden-skinned man who offers him a meal and a place to sleep. Ryoga accepts because he has nothing better to do.

Chapter One

Hiro rapped softly on the door and let himself in with a slight limp. It was just past two in the afternoon of the next day. They had been fighting for their lives in Paris only last night. He was wearing a bandage on his temple where a bullet had grazed him. Doctor Vickers had only used three stitches to close up his head and six for his leg.  
"Hello Hiro," Akane said fondly to him. She was in a nightgown lying beneath the sheets on her four-poster bed. Ranma was still asleep, head laying against her bosom. She stroked at his hair idly as he slept. Nabiki sat next to the bed, apparently chatting with her younger sister. The balcony window was open, letting the warm June sun into the room. A pleasant and sweet smelling breeze carried through.  
"Has he been asleep this whole time?" Hiro asked in a whisper.  
"He's exhausted," Akane replied. "But he bounces back quickly, so I don't think he'll be this way for long."  
"How is everyone else?" Nabiki asked.  
"They're coming around now. The Professor was talking about having a late lunch or perhaps a very large supper served early. I can get you some tea and biscuits if you like."  
Nabiki thanked him but declined.  
"Any word from Aerandir?" She asked instead.  
"I haven't seen or heard from him since last night. I wouldn't worry though. I think he can take care of himself."  
Hiro watched Ranma sleep in Akane's arms and a smile of pride crept across his face. "Seeing that makes everything worth it," he said, and turned to leave.  
"Hiro?" Akane asked him. He stopped and looked back to her.  
"Yeah?"  
"Thank you," she said warmly. She wanted to say more, but there was just so much. Hiro understood. He bowed for her and left, shutting the door quietly behind him.  
"He's such a dear," Nabiki remarked when he had gone.  
"Hiro's always looking after Ranma and I," Akane agreed. "I think it bothers Ranma a little, but I don't mind the attention. We've had some interesting talks together over the last couple weeks."  
She continued to run her fingers through Ranma's hair as she spoke. Nabiki grinned to see the two so close and affectionate. It was a little strange, but it was a good kind of strange. Everything that classified as strange recently was *way* out there. This was more in her league.  
"Hiro's right," Nabiki said after a little while of watching her sister. "Seeing you two like this really makes everything worth it. I'm really happy for you Akane."  
Akane looked down to Ranma. He continued to sleep oblivious to them.  
"He was so beautiful," she said quietly. "I didn't know what to do. I thought I was just going to burst with feelings... When he got down on one knee and took my hands and looked up at me... I knew I was seeing that tender part of him that was always there but usually hiding... Even with what happened after, I'll always cherish that moment."  
Her eyes began to dew a little. "Oh, I thought I lost him forever."  
She kissed the top of his head and gave him a squeeze. He murmured something in his sleep. "He is the biggest jerk in the world sometimes," she observed. "But when he isn't, I don't think there's anyone sweeter than him."  
"Have you set a date yet?"  
"No," Akane replied with a sigh. "I'm not too worried about it, either. I know Ranma still has a few misgivings about this. Hiro tried to explain to me what Ranma said to him in Spain, and I can see why he feels that way. I won't rush him into this."  
"I'm glad you're giving this some thought," Nabiki told her. "I want to see you two happy together, and it sounds like you're going about it the right way. Now all you have to do is convince Daddy that it's a good idea to wait a little longer."  
Akane grinned for her. "We've held him off this long."  
Nabiki had to laugh at that.  
Innael, Birathiel, and Gliredhel appeared at the balcony window then with bright chirps of greeting. Nabiki couldn't believe her eyes as the songbirds looked at her and chirped some more for her. Akane looked up from Ranma and saw them.  
"Oh Nabiki!" She cried. "They followed you!"  
Nabiki stood up and called them by name. Each bird twittered once in reply and flew to her arm. They sang a brief aria to her before fluttering over to perch on a chair back and watch Ranma and Akane. Bartok's Third Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was the afternoon's performance, with the three supplying the woodwinds, strings, and a spirited piano allegretto from Innael. "I really love them," Nabiki said fondly. "They are *so* amazing!"  
Aerandir appeared at the top of the balcony then, knocking at the window sill as he entered. He was dressed in white trousers and shirt with a black cape over his shoulders and black tricorner hat with yellow plume. His broadsword was conspicuously at his side.  
"I hope I am not interrupting anything," he said to them.  
"Not at all," Nabiki replied.  
He gestured to the birds.  
"Someone left them in Monaco," he remarked. "They were a little lonely without their mistress about. So I offered to show them the way."  
"Thank you Aerandir," Nabiki said gratefully.  
He bowed for her and doffed his hat.  
"Your servant," he told her. He straightened himself and made a sweeping motion with his hat to Ranma.  
"How does he fare?"  
"He's fine," Akane replied. "Doctor Vickers pulled a small piece of metal out of his back, but it wasn't very serious. Only two stitches. He's just tired because of the nightmares keeping him from any sleep."  
Aerandir nodded in understanding. "Would that I were able to do for him what I did for you..."  
Akane smiled gratefully for him. "I can't thank you enough for what you did for Ranma and I."  
"There is no need, Akane." He put his hat back on. "I must be off, this dry land is anathema to me I'm afraid. I just wanted to see that you were safe and well before I departed."  
"You're leaving? You just got here," Nabiki said.  
"Fear not Nabiki, you and I shall meet again soon enough. For now know that I have other matters to attend to."  
He stepped up to the balcony.  
"Farewell Akane. Farewell Nabiki. I would have liked to have spoken with Ranma, but it can wait. Farewell!"  
He jumped out of the window and was gone by the time Nabiki reached the balcony.  
"He could have used the door," she remarked.  
Ranma by now had stirred to wakefulness. He yawned groggily before feeling Akane's warm hands brush against his face. With his eyes still shut he clasped them in his and turned over to face her. She pulled him close and he began to kiss her deeply.  
Nabiki whistled appreciatively for them.  
Ranma and Akane broke from the kiss with a start, and the two of them began to blush furiously at Nabiki.  
"Don't let me interrupt anything," she said slyly to them.  
Ranma yawned again, still blushing. "Morning, Nabiki."  
Nabiki winked at him. "It's not morning anymore you lazy lug."  
"Hmmmm..." He murmured. He stretched out on the bed, playfully pushing against Akane as he did so. "Coulda slept for another coupla hours without that racket." He pointed to the birds, which ceased their singing in response.  
Nabiki affected an immediate look of disapproval.  
"No culture whatsoever," she huffed. "Very well Akane, I leave you to your barbarian fianc ." She opened the door and looked to the songbirds.  
"Come girls," she told them.  
Innael, Birathiel, and Gliredhel chirped in response and took wing after her. She closed the door as the last one swooped past.  
Ranma looked to Akane.  
"Those are some well trained birds," he observed.  
"And *you* had to get them upset with you!" Akane scolded him in reply.  
"Aw, they're just birds. It's not like I hurt their feelings or anything."  
"I'm not so sure about that."  
He had to laugh about that one. The look Akane gave him then silenced him. He stretched once more and rolled to his feet. He winced softly as he stood, and she saw his hand move to his back. He was wearing only a pair of boxers, and the bandage gauze-taped to his back was plainly visible above the waistband. Numerous bruises covered his body, some recent and others fading.  
"Are you all right?" She asked him.  
"Just a little tender," he replied. "Plus I feel like I got run over by a couple busses. I'll be okay once I get a bath and something to eat."  
He walked into the bathroom, and she could hear him making his rounds at the toilet. "Remember to put the seat down!" She told him. **Gods, its like we're married already*  
"You make it sound like we're already married!" He protested from the bathroom. He flushed, and then the sounds of the tub running could be heard. For this reason he didn't hear Akane start to laugh. A rather interesting thought crossed her mind then as the water rushed into the tub and steam wafted out of the door. She heard the snap of his waistband as he took off his boxers. She stood up and headed for the bathroom, pulling her nightgown up over her head as she walked through the threshold of the door.

Chapter Two

Ranma was standing naked before the large Roman bathtub. The bandage was removed, and she could make out the tiny black stitches against the purple bruise. He was spacing out watching the steaming hot water stream into the tub. He didn't even notice that Akane had entered the room until he heard the sound of the door being shut and locked. When he did, he turned to see Akane standing at the door, naked as well.  
His eyes started in their sockets. He'd seen Akane in the nude before, but never under any circumstances where it was her idea. She smiled impishly for him and started towards him, making no attempt to cover herself.  
His face and neck began to flush and his heart began to pound in his chest. He didn't know exactly what she was up to, but he had a few ideas. She leaned over to retrieve a small bottle along the edge of tub, and splashed a capful of the stuff into the water. It was some kind of scented bubble bath solution, and the foam began to form as more water spilled into the tub. She tested the water of the tub with her toe, decided that it was just hot enough to stand, and gave him a pat on the rear.  
"In the tub with you," she told him.  
"Huh?" There were times when Ranma's brain was stuck in neutral. This was one of them.  
She gave him another playful slap on the rear. "I said, get in the tub."  
He couldn't tell by the look in her eyes her intent, or how serious she was. Truth be known his mind was still spinning in circles. Without a word he settled into the tub. The water was very hot, and he hissed as he eased himself down.  
Akane slipped in behind him, also hissing slightly at the temperature of the water. When she was settled comfortably against the side of the large Roman bath tub she pulled him close to her, with his back to her. Her hands moved delicately across his shoulders.  
"What are you doing?" Ranma finally got up the nerve to ask.  
"I'm going to bathe you," Akane replied. She turned his head back around to face the front of the tub.  
"I can do it myself," he said, not really having anything meaningful to say, but feeling that he had to say something.  
"But you aren't going to."  
He paused in thought. "Oh." There was a certain finality to this.  
Akane reached for a washcloth and the soap. She lathered up the washcloth and then began to work it gently across his shoulders and back. Ranma mumbled something that she didn't understand. She didn't ask him about it, but contented herself with her work. His shoulders were broad and beautiful, if a little bruised and cut.  
She leaned close to him as she took one of his arms and lifted it straight up. Her breasts just touched the skin of his back as she did so, and both of them gave a slight tremor at the contact. She could feel the nervous tension in his limbs, could almost see it radiating from him like the steam rising from the tub.  
She worked the washcloth up and down his arm, the motion was slow and deliberately sensual. She was feeling each subtle curve and bulge of his arm, the power that was hidden within the flesh. She noticed for the first time how much mass he had put on since that first day they had met, a day that had found them in similar surroundings.  
She worked silently upon the other arm. Ranma remained silent as well, and the only sounds to be heard were the gentle splashing of Akane's body in the water as she moved behind him, and the drops of water that fell from the washcloth as she brought it up to continue. Akane lathered the cloth again and reached around him to wash his chest. She was pressed close against his back now, and she felt her nipples swell against his skin. As her hands moved across him she felt him take in a deep breath and hold it. He was savoring her every touch. "Akane..." he began to say.  
She shushed him softly.  
"Stand up," she told him.  
He stood, and the water rolled off his skin in a patter of drops and steamy wisps of vapor.  
Akane began to wash his legs, moving her hands over every inch of him. She started from the ankles beneath the water and worked her way slowly and deliberately up to his groin, her fingers turning little circles over him as she went. Reflexively his hand went to cover his manhood as she approached.  
"I'm not going to hurt you, silly," she giggled breathily for him.  
He looked down at her as she kneeled in the tub behind him. She grinned for him and waited. Reluctantly his hand went to his side.  
"Don't worry, I'll be gentle," she assured him with another giggle.  
This was as much a moment of truth for her as it was for him. Her hand moved the washcloth up along the inside of his thigh. Steeling herself, she moved up to cradle his manhood gently. He gasped at the touch, and nearly shirked away from her.  
His member was quite stiff, and she began to blush. He was blazing red, but stood there quietly trying to stay calm and collected. She began to stroke at him gently, the washcloth falling away from her hand and dropping into the tub with a splash.  
Ranma gasped again as he felt himself go fully erect. "Akane..."  
She released him then. She wasn't quite ready yet to go any further. With a kiss upon the small of his back she told him to sit down again. He settled back into the tub halfway between relief and disappointment.  
She brought her hands back up to his shoulders then and began to rub. Ranma hissed in pain. It startled her, and she stopped immediately.  
"I'm sorry, Ranma," she quickly apologized.  
"That's okay. Don't stop now."  
"But it's hurting you."  
"It feels better than it hurts," he said, and leaned over his shoulder to give her a wan smile.  
She put her hands back upon his shoulders and began to rub again. She could feel how tense and taut his muscles were. They were corded knots beneath his flushed skin. She began to work them loose, and he grit his teeth and would only give her the occasional grunt or hiss when he couldn't hold it in any longer.  
"Let it out, Ranma," she told him. "I know this is hurting you, but if you would just let go it will all be better."  
He groaned in reply as she worked at a particularly recalcitrant muscle group.  
"You're killing me," he told her with another hiss. "But I think I kinda like it."  
"You've always had an affinity for pain," she whispered, and kissed him briefly behind the ear. Her fingers continued to knead into his flesh, and he began to loosen up.  
At last he settled against her and panted against the lingering heat within his overworked muscles and joints. His arms burned and his back was on fire, but it was the kind of burn that let him know he was over the worst of it. Akane's arms reached around him and she held him loosely. Her fingers played idly along his chest, touching his nipples playfully as she settled her chin close to his neck.  
"Do you know what you mean to me, Ranma?" she asked him after some minutes of companionable silence.  
"As much as you mean to me," he replied with a moment's reflection.  
"Which is?"  
He shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Everything."  
He turned around in the tub to face her. Her arms continued to circle around him as he did so. He put out his arms and rested them on her shoulders. His gaze fell softly upon her, the heart shaped face framed by locks of silky blue-black hair. The eyes that were huge and expressive and bright, the little nose that turned up slightly, her mouth pouty, lush, and inviting. So he accepted her invitation.  
He cradled her face in his hands and fell upon those lips. His tongue teased at the threshold. Her mouth opened to accept him and they deepened the kiss. They held it as long as they could before parting for a desperate gasp of air, and then Akane pushed at him, forcing him backwards in the tub until he was pressed against the opposite side. He took her up into another fierce embrace and steamy kiss. They would part only for those quick breaths before falling upon each other again and again. His arms circled her and lifted her up higher than him, and she cradled his head in her hands as they continued their embrace.  
Finally he fell away from her lips and then upon her pale throat, kissing all the way down to her breasts. She cradled his head against her bosom as he visited her breasts with kiss after kiss. Her nipples swelled beneath his probing tongue. She could feel him growing again beneath her, swelling hard against the inside of her thigh.  
She pulled his face up to her and kissed him again, their tongues darting past the other's lips as they could. Her legs she brought up to either side of him as she settled down upon his lap. His hands began roaming along her thighs, down to her hips and gripping her gently.  
She understood his desperate grasps and kissed him once more, slowly and tenderly, before lifting herself off of his lap. He steadied her as she took his member in her hand and guided it into position. Then she fell down upon him.  
Akane threw her head back with a soft cry as he entered her. He hissed somewhere between surprise and exultation, nearly clawing at her hips. There was resistance, and she lifted herself again, nearly drawing him out in the process.  
She fell back upon him and that resistance was broken with a flash of light behind her closed eyes. She cried a second time and gripped his shoulders both to steady herself and to dig into his flesh with her nails at the pain. He gasped at her nails' bite, and then began to kiss her breasts again.  
From there Akane began to rock with him, rising and falling slowly against him, the water splashing gently with each motion, and the sound mingling with the drawing forth of a cry or gasp from the two of them. His lips moved up to her neck as she sank her teeth gently in his shoulder. Her love bite melted into another passionate kiss which met and broke with each cycle of their motion. As the steam wisped about them and the water splashed, their sense of time was lost unto the moment. There was only the steady rhythm of their bodies, and the frantic pounding of their hearts in harmony with each other. Breaths they took when they could, fleeting and sensual and full of gorgeous desire for life.  
Ranma began to feel the tingling in the base of his neck and the sudden pressure welling within him. He held on, fighting against it, wanting this to last as long as absolutely possible. Akane too could feel the heat swelling from her belly and down. Her neck and face began to flush fiercely. She could feel his desperation and it fed her inner flames.  
She picked up the tempo, moving against him faster now, and if she didn't think her pulse could be any faster, her heart proved her wrong. He whispered affectionately in her ear, meaningless babble, but only spurring her on. His hands came down to her hips and held tight as the pressure mounted and his toes began to curl. She reached out with one hand and took hold of his pig-tail, gripping it tightly.  
Her cries were coming louder now, the splashing more violent, and as he held on against the end a tiny part of him became suddenly concerned that they would be heard. That fear of discovery and irrational terror instantly thrilled him past the breaking point.  
He let go inside of her with the expulsion of all of the breath in his lungs. In that moment Akane threw her head back with a great cry of passion as her own orgasm exploded within her. She rocked against him for a few more strokes, quivering and gasping, and drawing blood as her fingers dug into his shoulders. His own fingers dug at her hips as he held onto her for dear life.  
As the frisson passed through and out of them Akane fell down against him with a sigh. Ranma sank back against the wall of the tub completely spent. He rubbed softly at her shoulders and curled his fingers around the hair on the back of her neck. They lay there in each others arms for a long while, neither one speaking. Ranma kissed softly at her cheek and neck while Akane stroked his shoulders and tried to catch her breath. They basked in the afterglow, feeling the heat bleeding from their skin and wondering at the indescribable moment they had shared.  
When at last Akane pulled away from Ranma to look him in the eyes she knew there was no need to tell him how much she loved him. It was there in the light and the glow and brilliant color of her eyes, and reflected with equal radiance in his. She whispered it to him anyway and felt an equal thrill as he told her the same.

Chapter Three

It was with no small trepidation that Ivan Tarchenko stepped through the heavy wooden doors and into the mahogany paneled room. A haze of tobacco smoke hung in the air, lending to the oppressive pall that hung over his head. Sunlight streamed through the hazy glazed windows in stark beams, mingling with the smoke and providing absolutely no warmth or comfort.  
As he expected, they were waiting for him.  
There were a dozen men sitting around a table made of mahogany that was stained jet black. Several had crystal cups of tea before them, while others smoked and sipped from brandy snifters. There were another two dozen men at the fringes of the light along the paneled walls; bodyguards. All eyes were upon him.  
He knew who these men were. A medley of the old guard Communists including Zhukerov -Leonid Brezhnev hard-liners to the core, a pair of Georgian gangsters, a wealthy Muscovite with trading partners throughout Europe and the United States, and more mobsters from Kiev, St. Petersburg, and Minsk. The bodyguards were mafia torpedoes or former KGB operatives with the occasional ex-Spetznaz trooper thrown in for good measure.  
Part of him wanted to look down at the floor to make sure there weren't any dropcloths under his feet. He resolved not to give them the satisfaction. If there was to be a bullet for him today, he would take it standing up, facing them.  
"Punctual at least," one of the men at the table remarked when he shut the door behind him. There were a few muted murmurs in reply. A few streams of smoke rose to the ceiling.  
"I am ready to make my report," Tarchenko said to them.  
"There is no need," the first man replied grimly. "We are well aware of the events that have recently transpired."  
There was silence as the man gave him a thoughtful pause.  
"It was farcical," the man, who Tarchenko knew as Groschov, went on. "Operatives killed, our embassy in France crippled, our nation openly disgraced by such terrorism, precious hard currency squandered. A farce. We are deeply disappointed in you, Mister Tarchenko."  
Tarchenko waited for that bullet.  
"Instead of making a report you can tell us what you intend to do to put the project back on track," Groschov said. A few more plumes of smoke were blown towards the ceiling.  
Tarchenko knew that his life depended on his answer. This wasn't the days of the Party. These men were gangsters and thugs who would think nothing of putting a bullet in the back of his head and leaving him to be found in Gorky Park. If they wanted him found at all.  
"Based on Doctor Casimir's work on the revised model, we have determined where the final event will be held," Tarchenko said. He hoped it was tantalizing enough for them.  
"Doctor Casimir tendered his resignation by telephone this morning," Groschov replied sternly. "He informed us of his intent to assist Professor McFogg."  
That was a surprise Tarchenko wasn't ready for. Undaunted at least outwardly, he moved on as if it wasn't important. "We have no need of him," he said firmly. "His model is functional, and we have the rest of the research group to carry on. We also have the notebooks of his father Andr , which detail the necessary steps to contain the energy of the Heart of the World."  
This last statement was his trump. Not even Casimir had known that the books existed. Tarchenko had a second research team putting together this final project under the old man's nose. It would be tricky without the Doctor for advice, but he was certain they could capture the Heart of the World on their own.  
"And what of the two Wayfinders?" Groschov asked him. Tarchenko wasn't sure if the man was satisfied.  
"A costly mistake sir," Tarchenko admitted. "We have no need of them. I shall eliminate them at the first opportunity. Doctor Casimir as well."  
That went without saying. He saw a few of them nodding their heads in agreement with his declaration. Execution suited their mindset very well.  
Groschov consulted quietly with the others. Tarchenko strained his ears to listen in, but could not tell what they were saying. He knew they were deciding if they approved or not, but had no idea which way it was going.  
Goschov cleared his throat for attention.  
"Very well, Mister Tarchenko, you have convinced us to continue funding and supporting this project. You will report back this time tomorrow with a detailed plan of execution to secure for us the Heart of the World. That is all."  
Tarchenko nodded crisply for them and left the room. Only when the door had closed did he heave a great gasp of relief. He wiped away the sudden cold sweat from his brow and fought back a shudder. Pulatski was waiting for him in the hall. His right arm was in a sling from where he had been shot in the embassy. He was a little strung out on painkillers, but coherent enough to do his job.  
"I gather by the fact that you have left the room on your feet that they are satisfied with the project?" He asked Tarchenko.  
"We continue, but only by the grace of Casimir's model and your prism."  
"I was told by Gulayev that Grigory resigned to join McFogg's group."  
"I just learned it myself."  
"Is it wise to continue without him?"  
Tarchenko gave him a solemn look.  
"I would say it was in our best interests to continue without him. A collective farm in Siberia is no longer an option in these enlightened times."

* * *

Ukyo Kuonji couldn't believe her luck had turned so favorably for her. She was the most peaceful and content she had ever been in her life. Sarophan's island was just the getaway she needed. The Ranma dreams had come every night. Every dream had left her at ease. Never once had she wept because of them.  
She wandered barefoot along the sandy beach, contemplating a swim in the warm lagoon even as she thought about her dreams. The breakers rolled in at her feet, foamy water washing along past her ankles. The cry of gulls was distant and calming. The sky was blue and scudded with high fleecy white clouds.  
The next wave that rolled in settled it for her. She waded out into the warm water and dove headlong into the next wave. When she popped out of the water she threw her long fall of hair back and laughed.  
"How are we this fine day?" A voice asked her.  
Ukyo looked to the beach. Sarophan was there, wearing khaki bermuda shorts and a white cotton shirt with the tails hanging out. He wore a wide brimmed straw hat and smoked from a long curved pipe with a deep bowl. His silvery skin shimmered with the sunlight reflected off the water.  
"Just wonderful, Sarophan!" She replied. They had come to be very familiar with names during her short stay.  
"That is wonderful, Ianthe. I am glad to see you in such high spirits."  
Ukyo smiled for the old man, who brushed at his beard thoughtfully. She waded towards him, her white bathing suit brilliant in the noon day sun. She was getting quite the healthy tan, and her skin glowed.  
"I wonder Ianthe, if you would walk with me for a bit. I have something to discuss with you."  
Ukyo thought nothing of it. They had taken several walks together. He would tell her stories of the ancient world and its many wonders and peoples. At night he would light up the skies with his magic, and entertain her and his servants. Yes, *magic.* It was the only explanation for what he could do. The fact that it was magic didn't bother her, she was well accustomed to the strange and the supernatural from her brief time in Nerima. On the contrary she thought it was wondrous and beautiful. If she had any regrets about her stay with Sarophan, it was that Nabiki wasn't here to share it with her. She found that she missed her. She even missed Kuno, if only because the banter between him and Nabiki was so precious. She hoped the two would get it together. As much as she thought Kuno was a pompous ass, with Nabiki at least he was cut down to size.  
She joined Sarophan as they walked along the beach. The man had an easy stride, one suited to walking and talking. She got in step with him and he began to talk. He didn't mince words.  
"I am glad to see you in high spirits Ianthe, but I also sense great trouble within your heart."  
Ukyo trembled slightly when he said this.  
"Forgive me Ianthe, but I felt I must say something. I am concerned for you."  
Ukyo nodded slowly. "It's okay Sarophan," she said. "I guess there is something I've been meaning to talk about. It's just that I've had a hard time speaking about it to myself."  
"I am a patient listener," Sarophan laughed.  
His laughter was infectious. Ukyo began to laugh as well. "I bet you are!"  
He waited for her to speak on her own. After some minutes of walking she did.  
"I'm living with a regret," she began. "One I can't let go of yet."  
He nodded in reply but held his tongue. He waited for her to continue.  
"I lost my chance at someone I love because of a stupid mistake... It wasn't his fault, he didn't know better... But then much later I could have had another chance with him, and I blew it by waiting too long."  
Sarophan patted her shoulder affectionately. She explained to him everything about Ranma and all that had transpired in the last three years between them. Her tears when they came were slow and bitter.  
"If only I had come to Nerima sooner," she sobbed against her will. "Before he fell in love with Akane. It would have been so easy and no one would have been hurt."  
She sobbed again. "But I lost him. I lost him because I waited too long to face him again... I could have been like the others and tried harder, but then there was Akane... I don't hate her... She's sort of my friend. I didn't want to hurt her, things just got confused."  
Sarophan nodded again and stroked at her hair. Ukyo threw herself against him and began to weep fiercely. He put an arm around her and whispered soothingly into her ear.  
"What if there was a way to start over again?" He asked her.  
She stifled a sob and tried to reply.  
"I don't see how."  
"If there was a way to start over again. Before Ranma fell in love with Akane. Before she fell in love with him. Would you take that chance?"  
She cried some more. He stroked at her long fall of dark brown hair, still damp from her swim, and waited for her to answer.  
"Yes," she sobbed. "I would."  
"I can give you another chance, Ianthe. But you must be willing to take it."  
She looked up at him, brilliant green eyes wet and shining with tears.  
"How?"  
"When the Heart of the World rises there will be enough power for me to give you that second chance. You have seen what I can do, Ianthe. I tell you that it is nothing before the power of the Heart of the World. A tallow candle before the furnace of suns. Any wish, any desire you have may be fulfilled in that moment. Even the streams of time may flow as I direct them then."  
She looked into his silvery eyes and knew that he spoke the truth.  
"No one gets hurt, Ianthe... Everyone gets what they want. You have the love of Ranma Saotome. He has the love of his childhood friend. Akane is freed from marrying against her will."  
She nodded her head slowly and the tears slowed.  
"Is this what you want?" He asked her.  
She closed her eyes and thought of Ranma holding her in his arms.  
"Yes."  
"Then I shall give you that chance, Ianthe."  
She closed her arms around him and squeezed. A final sob slipped past her lips. He gave her a fatherly smile and touched at her waist to get her walking again. They continued down to the far end of the beach.  
"I have noted that you are something of a martial artist," he observed.  
"Yeah, sort of."  
"While we wait for the Heart of the World I shall teach you something. It's a bit flashy, I confess, but it may come in very handy in the future. For I shall tell you this: there are those who would stop me from taming the Heart of the World."  
Ukyo looked at him.  
"The Russians?"  
Sarophan nodded.  
"The Russians, yes.. There are others as well. I shall tell you about them as we train."

* * *

Tatewaki Kuno knelt before his sword in the solarium. He was meditating. Hiro and Durango drank coffee and played chess while D-Day dozed with a copy of the Times of London over his face. Ferguson hammered away on his lap-top computer while carrying on a discussion with Doctor Casimir. Nabiki strode into the room with her three songbirds flitting in deft circles about her. She was bursting with a smug satisfaction at their adoration of her. She felt rather like a goddess.  
Hiro looked up at her and his jaw dropped. Innael, Birathiel, and Gliredhel swooped over his head to settle on a bookshelf over him. They twittered at him, as if they were laughing at his expense. Durango looked up at them with one eye closed.  
"Where the hell did *they* come from?" He asked.  
Nabiki smiled graciously for him as she stepped up behind Kuno. She bent at the knees and settled her elbows upon his shoulders, which had the effect of killing his meditation. She leaned her head close to his, snickered, and continued to smile at Hiro.  
"They came looking for me," she told him. The birds chirped in the affirmative.  
Hiro scratched his head.  
"We left them in Monaco," he observed.  
"Oh Hiro-dear, when will you learn that love conquers all?" She asked him with eyes pointing towards Kuno. The swordsman was oblivious to her attentions. Instead he harrumphed.  
"Nabiki Tendo, thy impertinence has often found pardon within the bounds of my gracious nature. Do not make presumption that this shall continue to be so."  
She stood up and twirled the hair on top of his head coyly with her fingers.  
"Oh Kuno-baby, thy capacity for clemency is boundless where I'm concerned. Don't kid yourself!"  
He looked up at her, trying to maintain his stoic countenance. It wasn't working very well. She winked very slyly for him, and he flushed ever so slightly. Hiro and the others didn't even notice the subtle interplay between them.  
"Nabiki Ten-"  
Nabiki cut him off.  
"That's all the abuse for now, Kuno-baby. If you'd like some more, you can find me in my room." She lifted a finger to her girls, and they took wing after her down the hall.  
Durango looked to Hiro, who sat there, mouth slightly ajar.  
"Did I miss something here?"  
"You and me both."  
Kuno gathered up his sword and started after Nabiki.  
Hiro watched him go. "Yeah, I definitely think we missed something."  
Kuno caught up to her as she reached the landing on the second floor.  
"Hold, Nabiki Tendo!" He called to her sternly.  
Nabiki didn't even look back at him.  
"I don't 'hold' for anyone, Kuno-baby. You of all people should know this."  
"I implore thee," Kuno added in a softer tone.  
Nabiki stopped. Her songbirds perched on the railing and waited. She turned her head slowly and looked at him.  
"Yes, Kuno-baby?"  
He stepped up to her. She was standing several steps higher than the landing, which put her level with his eyes. He drew a deep breath to speak. Nabiki tensed for the monologue he was likely preparing.  
"Know that I hold you in the highest respect Nabiki," he said to her in a calm measured voice. "Do I ask too much of thee that you might hold me in the same regard?"  
Her eyes widened. This wasn't what she was expecting from him.  
"Oh Kuno-baby, you don't take me seriously do you?" She asked quietly.  
His eyes lowered to the stairs for a moment.  
"In truth there are many times when I find your irreverence amusing, even becoming of you... There are also times when you wound me Nabiki."  
Nabiki didn't know what to say in reply. Kuno was so humble before her she didn't have anything to cut down. It was as much a shock as his apology to her in Monaco.  
His eyes hardened then with steely glints as she watched him in silence.  
"There are few in this world that I would know as friends," he continued. "Though I have never told you this ere today, know that I hold thee among those I consider dear... If you would continue to hold my esteem I would ask that you stay thy rapier wit from time to time. I do not ask that you do so always in my company, for that would bind thee against thy very nature, and thy irreverence is one of the very qualities I admire in thee."  
He stood in stoic silence for her to respond.  
She leaned forward until her nose was just touching his. Her walnut colored eyes shone clear and bright before him. He stood fast, and she could almost feel him tense up.  
"You know Tate-chan, I'll do that. Just for you."  
His eyes twitched at the mention of her recent pet name for him. She caught it immediately.  
"Oh don't tell me I can't call you Tate-chan?" She asked dryly, leaning back and setting her hands on her hips.  
He regained his composure.  
"I would ask that you would to keep that name between us," he said solemnly. "It is unbecoming in public."  
Nabiki smiled.  
"If it means that you're still my Tate-chan, then your wish is my command."  
He flushed slightly as she called him 'Tate-chan' again. He put his all into regaining the noble and stoic countenance he preferred to affect. It almost worked. A bead of sweat ran down his temple.  
She had to laugh at this.  
"You really like it when I call you that, don't you?"  
He cleared his throat before speaking. "It is thoroughly unbecoming, Nabiki," he protested calmly.  
"That doesn't answer my question, dear. I asked if you liked it when I called you that."  
He grit his teeth, trying not to remember the sight of her in that tiny nightgown. It wasn't working, and the halter and short shorts she wore wasn't helping matters. Nor the way she smiled at him wryly, lips slightly pursed in amusement.  
She pounced.  
"Oh Tate-chan, you are such a darling when you get worked up," she grinned, hands on her hips again.  
There was this roaring sound within Kuno's head, sounding uncannily like an erupting volcano. The badly worn clutch of his higher brain functions was happy to slip loose and disengage. His tunnel vision engaged instead, focused directly upon the unwary Nabiki Tendo.  
He glomped onto her with a speed that was inhuman, lifting her up into his arms and crushing her in his embrace. Tears streamed down his face as he held her close. Nabiki made a few gasping sounds as she was pressed against his chest.  
"Oh Nabiki!" He cried. "That name inflames me so! Endless is my passion! Oh forgive me my impetuousness!"  
Nabiki coughed a few times to get his attention.  
Kuno looked down at her, eyes still streaming tears.  
"I am not your precious Pig-Tailed Girl," she informed him with all of the patience she could muster. "I bruise easily."  
There was a faint grinding noise as the clutch within his head reengaged. He released her and set her gently upon the steps before him. The tears ceased as one would secure a faucet. A quiet moment passed between them.  
"Pig-Tailed Girl?" He asked suddenly. The tears began to flow again instantaneously. Nabiki wondered how he did it. "Oh Pig-Tailed Girl!" He cried. "How I have betrayed thee! Just when my way seemed clear I have stumbled from the path of True Love! Forgive me!" With one arm over his tearing eyes he fled down the stairs weeping deliriously.  
Nabiki couldn't believe she had just witnessed this. She sat down upon the steps and watched him go. She settled her chin upon her folded hands as she set her elbows on her knees. Innael, Birathiel, and Gliredhel, who had kept silent throughout the exchange, began to twitter amongst themselves. If she didn't know better, Nabiki would have thought they sounded a bit like gossiping housewives.  
She looked up at them "And what are you girls discussing behind my back?"  
The three ceased their twittering and peeped sheepishly a few times in reply.  
Nabiki set her chin back in her hands. This was the first time that the barrel of nitroglycerin better known as Kuno's passion had blown up in her face. She supposed she had it coming the way she got him worked up... She had really blown it mentioning the Pig-  
Tailed Girl.  
"I don't know why I set myself up for this," she said to herself.  
The three chirped once in agreement.  
"I said it once, and I'll say it again: Tate-chan, you are *so* hopeless!"

Chapter Four

At the Professor's insistence they took a very large and early supper out on the lawn overlooking the meadow and sometime airfield that surrounded the estate. The cooks had put out quite a spread, and even chowhound Ranma found that he just couldn't quite keep up. Akane watched him slow down with a bemused smile. Hiro sat on the other side of them, already quite sated. He watched the two sit next to each other and suppressed a grin. There was the oddest glow about them, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He chalked it up to that mind altering state best known to poets and songwriters as love.  
Nabiki sipped from a glass of wine and talked with the Professor and Doctor Casimir. The two old men smoked their pipes and traded stories with her. The songbirds, never far from their mistress, chirped idly in warm-up for their next performance from a chair back close by. Ferguson continued to hammer away at his lap-top, remembering to eat only when Katy Price prompted him to do so. D-Day and Durango hadn't stayed long at supper. They were across the meadow, preparing to overhaul the engines of Bettie's Dare. The Catalina was surrounded by scaffolding and steel tube staging that the Professor's men had set up earlier that morning.  
Tatewaki Kuno kept apart from the others. He continued to meditate on his sword, wondering if he would ever be able to conjure up the flames of his spirit upon the blade. Aerandir had made it seem so simple. Perhaps if his mind wasn't torn upon several ventures of thought it would have been easier. He looked over to Akane and Ranma. Akane looked so pleased to be with him that Kuno's heart quailed at the sight. To think that she would choose that churl over himself was simply too much for him to accept. But accept he did, though his pride suffered for it. **Oh Pig-Tailed Girl...** He thought sadly. **Would that she was here, she would be the very balm to heal my heart*  
Then slowly, against his will and his better judgment, his eyes fell upon Nabiki Tendo. She was the very opposite of the Pig-Tailed Girl, and of Akane. She was no fighter, certainly no goddess of the hunt like Akane. Her mannerisms made her more subdued than the vibrant Pig-Tailed Girl, so full of life and reckless abandon. He had to admit that she was pretty to look at, but that was as much a reflection of the beauty of her sister, though Nabiki was the elder.  
So why did he care at all for Nabiki? She wasn't anything like his two loves. She was inappropriately condescending, impertinent, and even crass. She manipulated him, extorted him, and exploited him. Despite this he found that her continued happiness and well being were important to him. Somehow she was his friend, one of his only friends outside of the world of kendo.  
Perhaps it was because when she was nice to him, she really meant the things she said and did. This at least was something he rarely received from Akane or the Pig-Tailed Girl, who constantly denied him in challenge to the strength of his love for them. He would fight ever on to prove his love for them (or at least the Pig-  
Tailed Girl now), but for some odd reason Nabiki never demanded the same of him.  
Was it because she felt love for him? Or was it because she did not? This was the bone of Tatewaki Kuno's contention regarding her. She caught his glance and smiled briefly at him. He quickly returned his attentions to his sword. At least he understood steel. The other mysteries would come with time and reflection.  
As Kuno pondered all of this he failed to notice the last guest arrive for supper. It was Anazali, who was looking a little worn out, but very happy to see Ranma and Akane sitting together. The Professor and Casimir rose from their seats for her, and Ferguson poured her a glass of wine that she accepted gratefully.  
"I see our venture was of a successful conclusion reached?" She asked them, eyes directed to where Ranma and Akane sat.  
"Thanks to you and Aerandir," Akane replied with a smile.  
"Hey what am I, instant ramen?" Hiro protested.  
Akane slugged him in the arm. "And you too, Hiro."  
Hiro rubbed at his arm. He smiled weakly. "Thanks, I think."  
"Will you be having a bit of supper with us?" The Professor asked her. "You are most welcome."  
Anazali smiled. "I can hardly refuse your hospitality, Professor!"  
Hiro jumped to his feet to prepare a plate for her, insisting that she be seated. Anazali laughed at this, but did as he wished. She answered Hiro's questions regarding preferences as she watched Ranma and Akane.  
It was a little unnerving for Ranma.  
"What is it?" He asked her.  
"Tell me what you saw in Paris. When the event came."  
Ranma rubbed at his head.  
"I think we saw that island we saw before when we were in Scotland," he began. "Only we were in this city and there was that big pyramid."  
"Don't forget the lions," Akane added.  
"Oh yeah, and those stone lions from the fountains of the Alhambra were there. They even spoke to me this time instead of just talking to Akane."  
"What did they say?" Anazali asked him.  
"They told us to watch and learn," Ranma replied.  
"And then the pyramid blew up," Akane threw in.  
Ranma looked at her for a minute. "Who's telling this story, anyway?"  
"Well maybe if you got it right and didn't keep leavings things out, I wouldn't have to interrupt."  
"I was getting to those parts!" Akane stuck her tongue out at him.  
He rolled his eyes and ignored her. "So like I was saying, the pyramid blew up." He shot a look to Akane, who made a face at him. "But instead of everyone getting blown up with it, they got sucked into the middle of the explosion. Then the lions were crying and told us that they were trapped in the Heart of the World."  
He looked at Akane again.  
"What?" She asked "It's your story, remember."  
"But you're dying to jump in, so just go right ahead."  
Akane pushed Ranma aside and sat before Anazali.  
"They told us not to free them," she continued where Ranma had left off. Ranma now busied himself with a bunch of grapes. "They said to do so would cause another disaster, and that they would rather stay imprisoned than let it happen again. They told us to stop it."  
Anazali nodded her head in agreement.  
"Yes we must," she said to them. The rest of the group was quietly listening in on the conversation.  
"The event in Paris has convinced the last of the doubters about your purpose in these matters. That is why I am here today. I am to take you to meet with my people. Any remaining questions you have will be answered there."  
"Where's that?" Ranma asked, his attention now firmly on Anazali.  
"Peru," she replied. "The Island of the Sun."  
"Lake Titicaca if I'm not mistaken," McFogg said from behind her.  
"Correct, Professor. It was and still is a place of power in this world. My people gather there from time to time. They are assembling there now to take final counsel before the arrival of the Heart of the World."  
"You're here just for Ranma and Akane or can the rest of us come too?" Ferguson asked. "I'm asking because my preliminary sims are pointing to a location in South America very shortly for the next event. And if that's true, then it means the model is working again!"  
Anazali nodded. "One will happen there during the counsel. It is our last chance to speak to our ancestors before the Heart of the World."  
"Say again, love?" Ferguson asked. He had been out of the metaphysical loop, so to speak, regarding recent events in favor of his scientific analysis. With a little help from Casimir and some inspiration of his own, the model was most definitely on track again. He could almost taste his Ph.D.  
"Ranma and Akane are correct when they say that the souls of my ancestors are trapped in the Heart of the World. They can speak to us directly only through these events. At other times they visit us in dreams, but those are rarely clear to us."  
She looked to the Professor. "Your research group is welcome provided they abide by certain customs. They will be explained to you upon your arrival. I would ask that you limit your staff to a necessary few however."  
McFogg puffed at his pipe. "Of course, madam. Ferguson, get a list of what you need. I'm sure we don't have very much time to prepare."  
"On it Professor," Ferguson answered. He and Katy got up and headed back inside the mansion.  
Hiro handed Anazali her plate. "I shall accompany you to the airport in La Paz, Bolivia, in four days," she told Ranma and Akane. "From there arrangements will be made to take us to the Island of the Sun. I cannot force you to do this, but I implore you. You have seen what happened the last time the Heart of the World was tampered with."  
"If we're supposed to stop this, and that's what I'm guessing Akane and me are for, how's that gonna help me get my Jusenkyo cursed lifted?" Ranma asked. Akane started at the mention of the curse and looked over to Kuno, who was still meditating on his sword, oblivious.  
Anazali began to eat. "It will be explained to you when the Conclave of my people begins. I am sorry Ranma, but I am very much the servant of the others. I do not know the answer to that question. I only know that it is possible."  
"So you'll be staying awhile?" Hiro asked.  
"Yes. Palandir was wounded during the fight, but I doubt he will be hurt for very long. He has already demonstrated his willingness to kill Ranma and Akane if necessary. I doubt I could defeat him in a battle, but I will be able to delay him enough for them to escape."  
Ranma grit his teeth at that. Running was the last thing he wanted to do when their lives were in danger. Running was their only option last night, when he was too tired and hurt to be effective, but give him a day or two to get back together and he would take on all comers.  
Akane sensed what he was thinking. Or at least was long accustomed to the way his mind worked. She looked to him with concern. He returned the look. It was concern for her that would drive him on to fight whatever battles were necessary to keep her safe.

* * *

Ryoga Hibiki was glad to get out of the jungle. They hiked up a meandering trail along a small river that charged down from the mountains that were capped with snow. The rarefied air felt clean and cool in his lungs, and he knew this was good training to be exerting himself at high altitude.  
"How high are we, anyway?" He asked.  
"Almost to the 4000 meter level," Minhiriath replied. "Soon we get to the steep part of this climb."  
Ryoga looked up to the towering wall that was the Andes range. They went from the small open terraces of the monta a to the sheer cliffs of the mountains. They would make their way up the narrow gorges of streams and along winding footpaths. Here they saw farmers tending to crops of maize and fruits and (occasionally) the coca plant. Coca was a fundamental part of the farmers' diets, Minhiriath explained. It allowed them the stamina to survive the rigors of high altitude farming and provided energy against the cold. It was very cold up here at the roof of the world. Ryoga had borne the burden of the heavy clothes his companion had provided with silent discontent through the jungle. Now he was glad for the heavy coat, made from the wool of the llama. They saw whole herds of llamas and their alpaca cousins as they walked. They had been traveling for four days now, and the food they had brought was almost gone. Ryoga found himself eating more than he expected just to keep active and warm. Minhiriath wasn't concerned. He planned to buy a llama and butcher it for the meat that would get them over the mountains and to the lake. At one such farm house nestled within a tiny clear patch of ground, Minhiriath produced a small bag of odds and ends and began negotiating with the woman of the house. They bantered in a language Ryoga was unfamiliar with. It wasn't like what he had heard in the lowlands, although he did catch the occasional word of what he now understood to be Spanish.  
The woman settled on a set of stainless steel sewing needles, several spools of thread, a large box of stick matches, and a pouch of herbs from the jungle far below. Minhiriath thanked her, and she invited them in for strong tea and a maize cake sweetened with honey.  
"Never fear Ryoga, when this fine lady's husband and sons come home, we shall have our llama to eat."  
Ryoga scratched his head. "You bought a llama for some sewing needles and a box of matches?"  
"Of course not!" Minhiriath replied. "I bought some of the llama's meat. They plan to butcher one anyway to celebrate the rising of Fox in the sky and to the flood that blackened his tail. It heralded the end of the Third World for these people."  
Ryoga understood the part about Fox rising into the sky, as it hadn't taken but the first clear night sky for Minhiriath to reveal his passion as an astronomer to him. Fox was one of the black splotches against the glorious band of light that was the Milky Way. There were other animals represented, but Ryoga could only remember Fox and Llama.  
"In any event I do have some money, but it wouldn't do this family very much good up here. It would get stolen by bandits most likely. Things like sewing needles and matches and medicinal herbs from the jungle are more useful than scraps of paper or bits of silver and gold. Whatever they earn from their llamas' wool they'll spend on such things while they are still in town. Which in this case would be Ayaviri and two days walk from here."  
Ryoga understood. He had spent enough time wandering amongst the salt of the earth to know that a day's labor for a meal and a bed was worth more than what few coins he kept in his pocket. He ate his maize cake and watched the woman work with her two little girls grinding more of the corn into meal.  
He sighed wistfully at this. **If only I could just settle down and have a family of my own! That would make me forget all that I have suffered*  
Of course that would mean he would have to have someone to start that family with. At the moment there was no one. He was 6000 kilometers across a vast ocean from Japan. Akari was just a face that sometimes came to him in dreams. Akane frequented them too, but he knew in his heart he would never have her. Both of them may have well been on the moon for all intents.  
"You're getting weepy-eyed Ryoga. Remember what happened the last time you did that," Minhiriath advised.  
Ryoga grunted a curse. "Would you like to talk about it?"  
Ryoga shook his head.  
"Very well Ryoga, I leave you to your thoughts."  
Much later the man of the house and his three sons came home. The woman introduced Minhiriath and Ryoga, and explained to them the bargain she had struck. The men looked them over. A golden-skinned man and some other foreigner, probably Asian, although they had never met one before. They knew of the kin of the golden-skinned man, and so were quick to agree.  
Places were set at the table and a bottle of home-brewed hooch was offered to them. Ryoga was about to decline when Minhiriath informed him that it was impolite to refuse such hospitality. Ryoga settled for one sip of the stuff, which went down like battery acid. Minhiriath took a healthy pull from the bottle and proclaimed in a loud voice to them that they were in the wrong line of work, and should take up distilling full time.  
They went outside then with the waning sun and fetched one of the llamas. They took it around behind the house where a large tanned skin was laid out on the cold ground. Minhiriath was offered the knife, as befitted his status.  
Ryoga watched as the golden-skinned man calmly approached the animal. The llama chewed at some grasses in it's mouth and had no sense of what was to take place. Minhiriath thanked the animal (Ryoga heard this to wondering ears), and brought the knife cleanly across the llama's throat. It didn't flinch or start, but simply stood there for a moment as the life pulsed out in steaming floods. Minhiriath helped it settle to the ground, where the blood pooled upon the skin beneath it. When the llama was dead, the father and sons and Minhiriath offered up a prayer of thanks, and set to butchering it right there. The finest cuts of the meat were set aside from the others. From these Minhiriath was given his pick. He took enough for a good meal that night and enough that could be smoked and last for the next two days to reach the lake. The rest was taken to the smoke house set into the side of the mountain. The fires had long since burned down to rich hot coals that morning in preparation for the butchering. Ryoga found the heat delicious in the waning sun.  
Although the fare was simple, they ate well, and Ryoga was given a place with Minhiriath by the fire. Minhiriath sang the younger children songs which Ryoga found he could understand as well as the little girls. He guessed that it was no difficult task for a man who could talk to you in your head.  
Ryoga fell asleep sometime later. Akari visited him in his dreams, and Minhiriath saw that two small tears trickled down the man's face as he slept. He clucked sorrowfully for the man and settled down next to him by the fire.

The next day found them reaching the top of that particular part of the range they crossed. To Ryoga's far left he could see the snow covered peak of Ancohuma, towering at 6400 meters above sea level. Minhiriath estimated they were about 5200 meters high themselves. It was deathly cold as they walked, and in many spots there was snow and patches of ice. It was winter in the southern hemisphere, and only their proximity to the equator kept them from facing an even more dire cold.  
From there the trip was mostly downhill, and they made good time. The air thickened, but only slightly, and Ryoga found he was growing used to it. As they traveled Minhiriath told him that the lake sat about the 4000 meter level, and was the world's highest navigable lake. On the morning of the second day they came out onto the dun colored expanse of altiplano surrounding the lake. Titicaca glittered a deep lapis-lazuli against the sunny sky. Ryoga could see the tiny wakes of barges and tugs in the distance. Irrigated farms along the lake were patches of green against the alkali plains of the surrounding altiplano. Minhiriath mentioned that modern efforts to reclaim the land for farming had failed, and in the end the time honored techniques Wiraqocha had taught their ancestors were what was bringing life back to the shores of Titicaca.  
"We shall take a ferry across the lake to the village of Altihelpa," he said pointing over the very horizon. The lake spanned a good 120 miles at it's longest point. "From there we walk to the ruins of Tiahuanaco, our final destination. We should reach it by nightfall."  
They started down the last spurs of the mountains and onto the altiplano at a brisk pace. By ten o'clock they were aboard a rusty ferry boat that made runs from the Bolivian side of the lake to Altihelpa and Puno. It would reverse itself the next day. They drew a few stares from the other passengers, but otherwise had an uneventful trip. The lake was cold and clear and a very deep blue, meaning that the water was also very very deep.  
They took their lunch in a cantina in Altihelpa and then started off on the final leg of their trip. Ryoga was glad it was almost over. At least then he could find out what the big deal was with Minhiriath's dream. His companion was slow to talk about it after the first mention.  
As expected, they were out of daylight before they reached the ruins of Tiahuanaco. They were greeted by two men in grey cloaks who carried seven foot poles that glowed with a pale blue light. They spoke to Minhiriath in a strange and beautiful tongue, and he answered them in kind. They made no concern over Ryoga as they led the two into the ruins. They passed through a great stone archway which Minhiriath told him was the Gateway to the Sun, and which faced the sunrise on the June solstice. It featured a carving of Wiraqocha that was fairly well preserved and showed him to be a stylized androgynene. According to Minhiriath, the Andean peoples long believed they sprang from such androgynous peoples as created by Wiraqocha in the moment of the universe's genesis.  
Ryoga and Minhiriath were led to a large gathering of brightly colored tents and pavilions that glowed with many different lights. None of these lights seemed to be something burning, for they were steady in the breeze and gave off no heat. He assumed they were some sort of magic, and that the whole idea seemed to make sense considering his present company.  
Ryoga was bade to make himself comfortable in one of the pavilions while Minhiriath was taken elsewhere. Several rather pretty young ladies with a native look to them attended to him, taking his wet and dirty coat and providing food and drink for him. He blushed hotly at all of their attentions, which only encouraged them further. Before they could get him to do anything more, shall we say *fun,* he remembered how tired he was and promptly fell asleep. The ladies sighed in disappointment and found a blanket to keep him warm against the evening chill.

Chapter Five

Ranma, Akane and the others found several large Mercedes sedans waiting for them at the airport in La Paz. Anazali spoke with the leader of the detachment sent to fetch them, a tall and older gentleman with oddly gold-colored eyes but nothing else that might distinguish him as one of the Maia. They got into the cars while Ferguson and Katy Price joined them in a truck with their sensory and research gear.  
It was an all day drive across some very bad roads once they left the Transamerican Highway. They were all too happy to get out of the cars when they arrived around dusk in a large clearing of grass and trees that grew in defiance of the arid altiplano that surrounded much of the lake. The cars drove off, and a group of men with horses and llamas approached. "What's going on, Anazali? I thought we were going to some island?" Ranma asked.  
"Tomorrow we shall. That is when the Conclave formally begins. For now, we shall live in the camp within Tiahuanaco."  
The Professor's eyes lit up. "Ah, splendid! I had hoped that was where we were going. I've always wanted to visit the ruins of Tiahuanaco! My studies never centered on the Andean peoples enough to justify it before." He puffed on his pipe happily.  
"Ruins?" Nabiki asked. That didn't sound like very comfortable surroundings. She had the sinking feeling room service wasn't going to be available.  
"Fear not, Nabiki!" Anazali said to her with a laugh. "I'm sure you'll find the hospitality of my family most satisfying."  
The men on the horses stopped at the edge of the clearing and raised their hands to them. Anazali raised hers in reply. They greeted her in the familiar yet alien tongue. With the glint of the dying sunlight in the clear thin air, they could see the pearlescent glimmer of their skin.  
The tallest of the men dismounted and took Anazali up into a hug that lifted her off her feet. She cried out happily and kissed him. He set her down, and she turned back to the party.  
"This is my brother, Urthel. He will be our guide to the camp, and our host during our stay."  
Urthel bowed for them. Then his eyes fell upon Ranma and Akane. "These are the two, fair sister?" He asked her for all to understand.  
"They are," Anazali replied.  
"Then they shall be well looked after in my camp." He looked the rest of them over; Hiro, Nabiki with her birds, Kuno at her side, Ferguson, Katy, Clay, Professor McFogg, and Doctor Casimir. "You shall all be well looked after. If there is anything you require, do not hesitate to ask."  
They were to ride the horses to the ruins while the llamas ported their baggage and the equipment. Ranma got up into the saddle like a natural, although he had never ridden a horse in his life. He'd been carried on one, but this was a little different. He offered a hand to Akane, who looked up at him dubiously.  
"Don't get too carried away with yourself, Wild Horse," she said to him mockingly.  
"I ain't gonna get us killed," he retorted. "Come on."  
She reluctantly took his hand and he pulled her up onto the horse. She set her arms around his waist as the others mounted and made ready to leave.  
"I hope you know what you're doing," she said quietly.  
"Trust me."  
"That's what I'm afraid of," she retorted. "I think I trust you too much now."  
"Do you *want* me to get us thrown?"  
"Of course not!"  
"Then be quiet and hang on."  
He nudged the horse gently in the ribs. The animal neighed and lurched into a mild gallop to catch up to the others. Akane shrieked in surprise, which was right in Ranma's ear as she leaned against him. Her arms nearly squeezed the stuffing out of him as she held on for dear life.  
"You're crushing me Akane," he gasped.  
She let up, but only a little.  
"Serves you right you jerk!" She cried merrily in response. The surprise over, she got into the rhythm of the horse's gallop and rode easily though the quickening wind with Ranma in her arms.  
As the last of the sun went over the mountains, Urthel and his companions conjured soft blue-white lights on their staves to illuminate the way. They rode for eight miles before reaching the light of the ruins of Tiahuanaco. They cantered through the Gate of the Sun. Three men armed with long spears that flashed with a spectral white flame guarded the gate. Urthel identified himself, and their party was allowed to pass. The security was not lost on Ranma.  
"What's the big deal?" He asked Akane.  
"I have no idea," she replied. "Maybe they're afraid that guy Palandir will try to come here."  
Ranma remembered well the man in the cloak who had nearly blasted them into bits on a Parisian street. If not for Fyodor's goon squad shooting him, Palandir would have succeeded. Anazali insisted that such a wound could be healed by the likes of Palandir in a short period of time, and that he would be out looking for them again soon. "I wish Aerandir were here," Nabiki said as Kuno brought their horse alongside them to catch the tail end of Akane's reply. The songbirds chirped in the affirmative. "At least he held that guy off for awhile."  
Hiro rode solo on his horse; an H&K G-3 rifle slung over his back. "Well we already know according to Anazali that these guys aren't bullet proof. I think we were all just too scared of him at first to bother shooting him."  
No one had an answer for this. It was an event that everyone hoped wouldn't come again. Hiro spurred his horse on ahead of them. He was planning on seeing Palandir again. And hopefully Fyodor, too. He had a little something for both of them.  
They stopped the horses and dismounted at the perimeter of the camp. The animals were led to a ruined building with no roof and fed. Ferguson, Clay, Katy, and Hiro looked after the equipment and the baggage as the others were led to a largest pavilion in the camp.  
Ranma and Akane had to wonder at all the Maia present. There had to be at least a hundred of them, all with faintly glimmering skin and odd colored eyes and speaking in that alien tongue. Many more had some trace or other of Maia heritage, while others appeared to be servants or retainers or at least children without any obvious signs of their ancestry. They nodded respectfully for Ranma and Akane as they passed, indicating that they knew who they were. Urthel and Anazali presented Ranma, Akane, Nabiki, Kuno, the Professor and Doctor Casimir before a tall man with a flaming red beard and long locks of red brown hair streaked with silver. He had piercing golden eyes that seemed to bore right through them. If not for his kindly smile he would have been quite intimidating. He radiated antiquity.  
The man rose from his carved wooden chair made of amaranth and raised his hand in greeting.  
"Welcome to my house, such as it is," he said with a kindly chuckle. "I am known by many names, but you may call me Nimatar."  
Anazali presented each guest individually before him, she saved Ranma and Akane for last. Nimatar greeted each one warmly and placed his hand upon their brow. His touch was warm and made them tingle.  
"This is Ranma Saotome, and his fianc e Akane Tendo," Anazali declared. "They are the ones our ancestors, your kin, have spoken to. They are the Wayfinders."  
Nimatar looked at each of them closely, piercing eyes once again boring through them. He nodded solemnly then and motioned for them to step forward that he could touch his hands to their brows. Ranma hesitated, but a nudge from Akane got him moving.  
He placed a gentle hand upon the both of them. "I am honored to meet with any who have spoken to my people, however indirectly. It is a sign of great worthiness and strength within you that you be so distinguished."  
He stepped back and sat down again. Chairs were brought for all of them, and food and drink offered them. Nimatar talked with them as they ate.  
"Tomorrow at the Conclave we shall receive our last visit from our kin before the Heart of the World," he told them. "There is much we shall discuss amongst ourselves, but as you are also a part of this, we shall hear your say gladly."  
"I just have one question," Ranma asked. "I know that somehow Akane and I are supposed to stop one of your own people from grabbing this Heart of the World. Any chance you could explain to me how?"  
Nimatar nodded at Ranma's concern.  
"In order to capture the Heart of the World, a prism is required. You have likely seen it in your visions."  
"The pyramid," Akane said.  
"Yes, it is shaped like a pyramid. The prism acts as a focal point for both the energies of the Heart of the World and for the will imposed upon it. The size of the pyramid isn't as important so much as it is the purity of it's internal structure. It must be of flawless crystal structure. Such material cannot be found in nature, it must be constructed by the hand and mind of man."  
Nimatar let them think about it for a minute.  
Ranma's eyes lit up. "Hey yeah, I remember this voice in my head telling me it was important to flaw the thing somehow. Shouldn't be a problem, I mean you just gotta come up and smash the thing to bits."  
Kuno and Hiro nodded in agreement.  
"That might be more difficult than it seems young Ranma," Nimatar replied. "We are informed by Sil Amarn through Anazali that the prism to be used survived a previous attempt 88 years ago."  
He sipped at a cup of wine. "You see my friend Sarophan in his misguided wisdom has decided that the Heart of the World's energies are the only thing that will save the Earth from the ecological disasters of overpopulation and pollution. To this end he spent centuries shaping his prism until it was ready to be used. In the year 1908, in a Siberian forest, the Heart of the World rose from the depths as it had for cycles since the creation of the planet billions of years ago. "We were resolved to stop him, and in the end one of our own entered the vortex of energy and disrupted it. The backlash flattened several thousand acres of forest and was heard for thousands of leagues. Jubal was killed in the blast, and we had thought at first that Sarophan and his followers had joined him. When we learned that he had survived we at least hoped the prism had been destroyed. "Our hopes have proven to be in vain. The prism survived according to Sil Amarn, who has seen it only days ago. Sarophan can try again. Even if we stop him a second time, if the prism isn't destroyed he can just try again in 88 years. While you will likely have passed on from this world into the next by then, your children and grandchildren and so on will have that specter hanging over their heads. The prism must be destroyed this time."  
He looked directly at Ranma and Akane.  
"You are the ones who will destroy it," he told them. "My kin within the Heart of the World have chosen you. I cannot guess why they chose you over others in this world with similar strength of heart and will, but that is not for me to judge. Because they have chosen you, they have also been shaping you as it were through the energies of what you call 'events'. You will be able to walk unharmed into the energy of the Heart of the World where Jubal could not at the price of his life.  
"I am not a warrior," he said to them intently. "I have never fought with fists or feet, nor have I raised up sword and spear against my enemies in all of my twelve thousand years on this Earth. I do not have such experience as to tell you what you must do when you reach the prism. You are both fighters, and I trust to your instincts that you will know what to do when the time comes. Perhaps tomorrow when my kin speak to us they will tell you."  
Ranma sank back in his chair. He wanted some answers and he was tired of not getting any. If anything, Nimatar had only raised more questions within him. Possibly even a doubt or two. "We should speak no more of this for now," Nimatar declared. "There will be time and cause enough for it tomorrow. Let us instead discuss all that has transpired to bring all of you here to this place."  
They talked with Nimatar and with his aides for some time. After several hours he could see that his guests were weary and dispatched servants to take them to private lodgings. Ranma and Akane gratefully accepted the spacious and tall canvas tent dyed a bright blue and glowing with soft magical light from within. There was a comfortable down sleeping mat within, and lots of soft blankets to ward off the cold. Several chairs and a low table were in the front of the tent, with the sleeping area segregated by two heavy flaps that could be tied off to the walls of the tent when not in use.  
Nabiki and Katy Price found that they were tent mates and to Hiro's chagrin he found that he had Tatewaki Kuno. Ferguson was paired with Clay, and McFogg and Casimir could be heard threatening the other about snoring.  
Ranma pulled the flaps down over the tent and secured them. Akane began to undress. He watched her and she winked at him when she caught him stealing a look.  
They had been making love every night since that first day, and the thought on both of their minds was whether or not they could be discreet enough tonight within the tent and having the others so close by. Ranma certainly hoped so. It was Akane that tended to get carried away. It must have been woman's intuition, or maybe Akane had developed telepathy, because she suddenly gave him a sour look when he thought it. Perhaps it was the look on his face when he thought back to those few passionate joinings they had shared. He waffled his hands in protest for her look. Instead of hitting him or giving him another sour look, Akane settled onto the sleeping mat and patted the spot next to her.  
Ranma shrugged and began to undress. **Oh well, can't stop a guy from trying*  
He slipped under the blankets next to her.  
"It's going to be a cold night," Akane whispered to him. "Good thing I've got you to keep me warm!"  
"I was thinkin' the same thing," he grinned. He began to move close to her.  
They kissed slowly, tenderly, more full of love than any real passion. She put her arms around him and drew him close to her. Hiro and Kuno began arguing about who got which mat.  
That killed the mood right there.  
"Maybe we should wait until everyone's asleep," Akane suggested in a slightly frustrated voice.  
Ranma agreed, although he had the funny feeling these people didn't sleep very much. Nabiki had remarked that she had never seen Aerandir asleep, and in the four days Anazali had spent with them in the Professor's mansion, he had never known her to sleep either. She'd caught the two of them raiding the kitchen at three in the morning after a few rounds of Anything-Goes-Style wrestling between the sheets. She had given them a sly grin and returned to what she was doing. Whatever it was, it wasn't sleeping.  
As if to prove his point a song broke out from a row of pavilions across from them. Music began to play; pipes, flutes, harps, and other instruments whose identities he could only guess at picked up the tune as more and more voices joined in. Laughter followed each verse; the song was obviously supposed to be funny, or maybe they were just enjoying themselves. In spite of himself he found that he wished he could understand what they were saying. Their trick of speaking their own tongue and being understood by all only applied if they were paying attention to you.  
"Akane, I don't think they're going to go to sleep," he observed. His fingers traced little figure-eights on her back and down her spine.  
Akane kissed him on the tip of his nose. "Okay. Maybe we should take a little walk." Then in a husky voice that thrilled him to no end, "perhaps we could find a place a little more private."  
He was all for that idea, cold night at 4000 meters or not. He gathered up the blankets under his arm after they dressed enough to go walking around at night. He threw a red sable-lined cloak the Professor had given to him over his shoulders and then draped it over Akane as she snuggled close to his side.  
They stepped out of the tent. More of those soft magical lights glowed on poles along the little paths laid out between the tents and canopies and pavilions. Several Maiar passed them with silver cups of wine in hand and bright swords at their sides, and greeted them merrily. They offered helpful suggestions when they noticed the blankets Ranma carried under the cloak. Both of them blushed and offered thanks.  
They passed one particularly rowdy tent and had to endure a toast of sweet red wine and a song when they were discovered passing by. Ranma mumbled something about just hanging a sign around their necks declaring that they were trying to find a place to be alone and wouldn't you just please let us do that. Akane laughed at this because embarrassing or not, it was kind of neat to be the center of such attention from such a magnificent people as the Maiar.  
The delay was just enough to keep Ryoga Hibiki from running into them on the path. He was lost (no surprise there) and a little drunk. Not that he intended to be in either state. Getting lost was something out of his control, but the people singing and dancing around him were just too merry to refuse when they pushed a cup of wine in front of him. Every time he stopped to ask someone for directions to Minhiriath's tent, he got a little drunker, and consequently more lost.  
When they at last escaped their mirthful serenaders, Ryoga had stumbled on around a tent. Taking care not to get caught again, (and failing a few times with the standard punishment of wine and song following), they at last escaped the camp and wandered into the cold and dark ruins of Tiahuanaco. They passed two men with long spears who were not obvious Maiar and were in fact sentries. The sentries bid them goodnight and directed them to a suitable place with laughs and lots of well wishing. **The cheer of this place is just too infectious when sober guards on a cold and windy night are laughing and carrying on,** Ranma thought as Akane snuggled closer than before beneath the cloak. **Then again didn't one of them say this was the first time so many of them had all come together in two hundred years? I guess that would be something to celebrate*  
They picked their way along the rubble strewn street that had long since become overgrown with grass and weeds. The half moon was out, giving them light to walk by, but even then the stars were huge and bright above them. The air was so thin and they were so high above the level of the sea that the Milky Way was glowing with enough light that they could likely see without the moon.  
They found the place the sentries had mentioned, a low structure that was well insulated against the wind, and had a marvelous carpet of grass and a gorgeous view of the stars with the hill that made up one wall blocking out the moon that was low in the sky. Ranma set the blankets down and spread them out for them. Akane settled beneath them and stared up at the stars. Ranma joined her a moment later, after making sure the sentries weren't close by spying on them.  
"Are you worried, Ranma?" Akane asked him after a little while of watching the stars together.  
Ranma thought about how he should respond.  
"You can tell me when you're worried you know," Akane added.  
"It ain't that," he said quietly. "And yeah I am a little worried. Maybe if I knew a bit more about what we were supposed to do, I wouldn't be."  
"We're going to do it, aren't we?" She asked. "At least try anyway."  
"We gotta. If we don't, well you heard what Nimatar said. It might not mean a hill of beans to us and then again it might. If this guy Sarophan does what he's trying to do they say he might hold on for a few centuries before losing it. It might only be a few hours, too. No one knows for sure. It's not the kind of chance I'm willing to take with my life."  
He turned to face her.  
"And it damn sure ain't the kind of chance I'd take with yours." He squeezed her hand beneath the blanket. "But if we gotta take our chances, I want to do it fighting; not sitting at home worrying about the end of the world and if we'll get any kind of future between you and me."  
"We'll have to fight together," Akane declared. "I just know it." She looked at him with concern on her face. "Does that bother you?"  
"A month ago it would have," he said then. "I wouldn't have wanted you anywhere near the kind of fight I know is coming... Now... I hate to say it, but we do work pretty well together. When we want to anyway."  
He squeezed her hand again. "Am I still gonna worry about you in the middle of the fight? Yeah, a little... I think we should spend what little time we have left practicing together. I mean really training, not just jogging and working out. Training to fight as one; that way I don't have to wonder what you're doing when I can't see you. I'll just know it. I won't worry so much about you then, and I'll be able to keep all of my focus on the battle."  
Akane leaned over and kissed him.  
"Tonight I want to keep all of my focus on *you,*" she whispered. She kissed him again before he could say anything.

The sounds of music and singing could be heard in the distant camp. The sentries made their rounds, giving the ruined building a wide berth and offering salutes with their spears. Ranma and Akane were too focused on each other to notice any of it.

Chapter Six

The Island of the Sun, once known by the name that the lake now held, was the site of an Inca temple, now in ruins. The shrine to Wiraqocha was an exquisite fake; the politically astute Incas' attempt to write themselves into the Andean creation myth in an era when the city of Tiahuanaco had been in ruins for 400 years. Despite the bogus temple, there was a sound reason for the Maiar choosing the Island of the Sun for their Conclave.  
This was for the simple fact that a Maia who would be known as Wiraqocha to the Andean peoples had chosen that site as his home. He had invested much of his energy into shaping that place, and if such work was not visible to the eyes and ears of most men, it was to the Maiar. The Island of the Sun sang to them of his ancient wisdom and showed them his history of shaping the Andean people, though he had long since left this world.  
There were close to a hundred full Maia present, roughly two-thirds of those left in the world. There were another two hundred who had Maia blood within them and who had been able to tame the energies that traversed the planet enough to extend the span of their lives. The only people on the island who were not of Maia heritage were Ranma and Company, at Nimatar's express wishes.  
They gathered under banners and standards of the various surviving families. A few reached all the way back to the days before the disaster, Nimatar's being chief among them. The ancient Maia was the only other of his kind, save for Sarophan, who had set foot upon Maianar in the days before it was drowned by the sea. The rest came later, the last of a people that were taking millennia to die.  
The Conclave was being held in a natural bowl of low hills on the island near the ruined shrine. Ranma and Akane and the others were shown to a place of honor close to the open center of the bowl. Their place was close to Nimatar's banner, although technically they were the guests of Urthel. The Professor, Doctor Casimir, and Mister Clay had spent much of the night talking history and other such matters with Nimatar and some of the other elder Maiar. They looked a little worn out, even Clay, who was considerably younger than the two elderly scholars. Apparently wine was required for any thoughtful discussion with a Maia.  
Kuno sat quietly next to Nabiki, maintaining his meditative state. They hadn't spoken much to each other, but instead enjoyed a comfortable silence. Nabiki's songbirds did most of the talking. Nabiki for her part found that she could almost guess what they were saying, and of course they seemed to understand every word she said. She suspected that whatever Sarophan had done to extend their lifespans, he had also given them the talents to read people's emotions, if not their thoughts to some extent. Innael, Birathiel, and Gliredhel had been great comforts to her considering her present confusion regarding Tatewaki Kuno. She was fond of him, she had to admit it, but she had no idea if it was worth the effort of going anywhere with her feelings. Anytime she got close to him he just clung that much tighter to the hopeless romance of his Pig-Tailed Girl. Her songbirds hadn't been much help for advice, but they always tried to make her feel better.  
She looked over at Ranma and Akane, who were sitting between herself and Hiro. For a moment she considered dumping cold water on Ranma in front of Kuno just to show once and for all that his Pig-Tailed Girl fantasies were just that; fantasies. She thought better of it upon further reflection. She'd changed Ranma in his very arms and he had either been too dimwitted to figure it out, or some part of his subconscious had shifted into emergency to block out reality. If it was a case of him being too dimwitted, she could always help him figure it out eventually. Ranma might object to the "Ukyo Treatment" with the alternating hot and cold water, but what the heck? The problem was if it was the second case. If it was, there was truly no hope for him. Nabiki just didn't feel strongly enough for him to go through the agony of breaking through his thick skull to make him see the light.  
The slow burn she was putting on him might work, but it was a question of diminishing returns there. Was that sword swinging, poetry spouting blockhead really worth the effort? That was the question she kept asking herself of late.  
She looked away from her reflection on Tatewaki Kuno and towards the center of the gathering. She saw a familiar pair of sea-colored eyes looking back at her.  
"Aerandir!" she called to him, standing up and waving her hand. The songbirds began to chirp, matching her excitement. The others looked up and saw him. "Nabiki!" Aerandir returned. "Why am I not surprised to find your fair presence amongst this gathering?"  
He strode across the open space between the circle of Maiar and headed straight towards her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her brow, then bowed for her as she blushed.  
"Your servant," he declared. "I was wondering if we were going to see you again," she said to him.  
"Did I not say we would meet again? I had an idea that Ranma and Akane would not be the only ones invited to this Conclave." At this he bowed his head for the two as they sat on the grass and watched him.  
Anazali stepped up then and kissed his cheek, which he returned.  
"It is good to see you here, Sil Amarn," she told him.  
"I have made my bunk," Aerandir said in reply. "And now I must sleep in it."  
"That eases my heart, Sil Amarn," Urthel declared from behind Ranma, Akane, and Hiro. "I for one did not look forward to facing you across the point of a spear, had you sided with your uncle."  
Aerandir's appearance had created quite a stir amongst the Maiar. Conversations stopped as one by one the little families and cliques began paying attention to one of the oldest of their race. Aerandir was in fact junior only to Sarophan and Nimatar, and to his brother Palandir by only ten years, a pittance considering his span.  
"Have we already decided that there will be open war amongst us?" Aerandir asked loud enough for all to hear. There were various murmurings from the crowd. "There are so few of us left in this world, and our work is far from done! You wish to spill rare blood so readily?"  
"Sarophan has pushed this upon himself!" someone declared. They were keeping their speech open for the sake of Ranma and the others.  
"How many innocent lives will be snuffed out when he loses control of the Heart of the World?" another asked. "Better that we pay for our folly with our own blood than spill any more of our cousins'!" At this he gestured to the small group that was Ranma and company.  
Aerandir retorted by gesturing to a woman nearby. Her skin glowed with a silvery sheen, and she was very pregnant. He walked over to her and humbly asked that she stand. The woman could not refuse a request from Aerandir, and did so. He pointed to the woman's belly.  
"Not only do you seek to spill our rare blood, but you deny this unborn child the chance to realize her potential. To become one of us! You doom her to the span of but a handful of years with an open battle in the Crown of Eternity!"  
Akane's eyes flashed at the mention of that name. Hiro looked over at her with an equally astonished look. He tugged at Anazali's sleeve as she was watching the debate. She looked down at them with a puzzled expression.  
"What is it, Hiro?" she asked.  
"What's the Crown of Eternity?"  
"It's the place where the Heart of the World will rise," she replied. "Why do you ask?"  
"Because Ranma and I have heard that name before," Akane declared. "In our visions during the events."  
"What's Aerandir talking about?" Ranma thought to add. "What's that pregnant lady got to do with it?"  
Anazali sat down with them and ignored the discussion that was now filling with new voices.  
"The Crown of Eternity is a place where the Heart of the World has risen many times before," she began. "I was born there a little over a thousand years ago. The men among us would take their wives while they were in the final stages of their pregnancies to the place where the Heart of the World rose. They would have the baby there in the hopes that exposure to the energies would help the child be like us instead of just another human. "You see, it's exposure to the energies of the world that lengthen our spans. Some of us can handle those forces and use them to heal our wounds or to keep us young. Most of our children never learn how unless they are exposed to great power at a young age - birth preferably. That is why we are so few even though we don't age and rarely die. We just don't bear enough new Maia children into the world. The attrition is greater than we can make up for. What Aerandir is saying is that we would not only destroy ourselves but our dim hopes at a future as well."  
"If you don't age and rarely die, then why can't you keep up?" Hiro asked. "Do you have problems getting pregnant?"  
"Somewhat," Anazali admitted. "We try to establish our chances at conception for times when the Heart of the World will rise, but the very energies we use to sustain ourselves can be disruptive to our reproductive cycles.  
"And just because we don't age doesn't mean we have the endurance for immortality," Anazali went on. "Many of us cannot go on for millennia or even centuries devoting their lives to helping you people help yourselves. You have disappointed us many times in history, times when even I have considered ending my life because it all seemed so futile. I had just enough strength, desire, and hope to continue on. Many of my people do not. They commit suicide or just pine away when they don't even have the strength to end themselves quickly. The ones that give up are lost to us, even if they don't die right away."  
"So where *is* the Crown of Eternity?" Ranma asked.  
"A vast ring of rock formed by two mountains on an island in Antarctica."  
"What?!" Ranma, Hiro, and Akane cried in unison. "Antarctica?!"  
"I believe it's called Ross Island these days. The mountains were given the unflattering names of Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror. Our names are much more appropriate."  
"We're gonna freeze to death!" Hiro cried. "It's the dead of winter down there."  
"Oh no, it will be quite comfortable, I can assure you." Anazali replied calmly.  
She turned her attentions back towards the debate. Minhiriath had the floor, and she enjoyed listening to the old astronomer speak. He stepped out into the circle, as Aerandir stepped to the side and to Urthel and Nimatar's groups. Minhiriath was wearing faded jeans and his soft knee high boots, and proudly wore his Grateful Dead T-shirt. It seemed hard to believe that the golden-skinned man received the attention and respect that he did.  
"I can understand the impetuousness of our younger kin," he began. "Most of those gathered here are not old enough to have ever seen the Herald of the Nazarene in the sky, and for them our tales of the old world are as fantastic as they would be to any who were not of our blood."  
Aerandir stood silently, letting the astronomer continue. His silence was keeping the others silent as well. At least for the moment. He hadn't said anything particularly inflammatory yet.  
"But I cannot as one of the elders among us allow such open bloodshed. I stand with Aerandir in this regard. We have our means of staying Sarophan's hand, and it is not by force of arms." He pointed to Ranma and Akane.  
"What will stop him from slaying the Wayfinders if we do not fight?" came the retort.  
"I never said anything about not preparing for battle," Minhiriath rebuked. "But I must agree with Aerandir that we must not predispose ourselves to battle before we even leave this island. We must make one final appeal to Sarophan. At least let the thought of negotiating into your hearts!"  
"Negotiate?" This cry was echoed incredulously several times, creating quite a rumble of discord. Finally Nimatar rose from his chair and silenced them with a raised hand. He returned the debate to Minhiriath with a nod.  
"Yes, negotiate!" he cried. "Ask him to wait for one more cycle, perhaps two. Think of all that we can achieve in that time! Our cousins are finally starting to act their age. Perhaps within that time they can, with our continuing and discrete support, ease the world's burdens so that Sarophan will not think it necessary to seize the Heart of the World to set things right."  
He turned in a circle to look at all of them.  
"For as much as he has been demonized by this circle, he is still a good man at heart. His intentions are to help this world restore itself and to ease the burdens of it's children. I am but half the span of Aerandir, and a third that of Nimatar and Sarophan, and so I cannot truly know the weight of so many years upon my soul. Perhaps he has become too weary to continue at such a pace, that he seeks a quick end to our struggle."  
"He shall have it if he does what he sets out to do!" a particularly militant Maia yelled.  
"Elentirmo speaks the truth," Nimatar said then, gesturing to Minhiriath, who was also known as Elentirmo for his chosen profession. "Sarophan has been unjustly demonized by those present. I have known the man for years beyond number, and have walked with him along the very tree-  
lined avenues of Eldalonde, ere it was drowned. We should not be too hasty to draw sword or set spear."  
The debate continued on as to how much of an offensive footing they should present at the Crown of Eternity. It was lost upon Nabiki and the scientists, but Ranma, Hiro, Kuno, and even Akane were of a martial nature, and understood the need to know what the strategy was going to be. They listened intently, hoping a direct confrontation could be avoided. The chance that Sarophan might even negotiate left them the hope that fighting wouldn't be necessary at all. Akane said as much, but when Hiro and Ranma snorted in reply her heart fell. Whatever their hopes, both of them were planning to fight. Kuno as well, though he was keeping quiet about it.

Ryoga Hibiki had made his way to the island with the last group of Maia. He hadn't seen Minhiriath since the previous night, and had eventually fallen asleep in one of the tents belonging to another group. They had fed him in the morning and took him with them to the island. When Minhiriath started to speak, he made his way slowly and politely down the slope of the hill towards the center.  
He didn't notice (or expect in a million years) for his friends to be at the bottom of the slope, and so when he blithely stepped on Kuno's hand, he was quite astonished.  
Kuno looked up and barked, "watch thy step, Hibiki, lest ye feel the...." His words died in his throat as he saw Ryoga looking down at him.  
At the mention of Ryoga's surname, everyone else turned around to look at him in surprise and wonder.  
"Hey, Hibiki!" Hiro cried. "Man, did *you* ever get lost!"  
Ranma actually looked pleased to see him. "Ryoga! How's it going? Are you with someone or, as crazy as this sounds, *did you actually get lost and wander here?*"  
Nabiki tousled his hair fondly. "Looking good, Ryoga. I'm not going to be so crass as the others and suggest you got lost or something." The songbirds twittered laughter.  
Akane gave him a hug, which made him turn beet red. "I'm glad to see you, Ryoga!" she cried. He got weak in the knees.  
"Sit down before you fall down," Ranma advised him. "Man, how in the *hell* did you get here?"  
Ryoga blushed at the memories of it. He scratched his head and smiled weakly. "Eh, it's ah, it's a long story..."  
"I can imagine," Nabiki said dryly.  
"I gotta hear this one," Hiro added. "Last time I saw you it was the middle of the winter outside of Nagasaki. What happened?"  
Ryoga continued to blush.  
"Oh leave him alone," Akane scolded. "He'll tell us when he's ready."  
"Have a seat," Hiro offered. "Seems we have a regular 3rd Platoon reunion going on here, eh Saotome?"  
Ranma nodded. They had Kuno, Hiro, himself, and now Ryoga. All they were missing were Gosunkugi and Daisuke, although he wouldn't be quite as happy to see Gosunkugi as he was Ryoga. Hopefully, the guy still remembered that he was his friend.  
**As long as he doesn't blame me for whatever misfortunes got him so lost he ended up across the Pacific ocean, everything should be okay*  
Ryoga sat down next to Hiro with a confused but also very happy grin. The debate continued on for some time. Many of the assembled Maiar wanted to bring all of their fighters along to project strength to Sarophan. Nominally this was to help convince him to negotiate peacefully, perhaps even convince him to abandon his dangerous ambitions. Others felt that bringing so many fighters was just provoking a battle from the start. All parties of thought wanted to allow those who were to bear children within the Crown of Eternity the chance to do so without interruption. There were three such pregnancies within Nimatar's camp, and no one was certain among those loyal to Sarophan, though at least one was a safe bet. That would be their one chance to avoid a fight, assuming that Sarophan was of a similar mind to allow the expectant parents their chance for their childrens' Maia inheiritance. Hopefully he would, as such an event was sacred to the Maiar.  
As the noonday sun rose in the sky the wind began to pick up. The assembled Maiar began to sniff and taste at the air. The few children present began to giggle and laugh. Ranma and Akane felt a very familiar tingle in their spines and on the tips of their tongues.  
Aerandir laughed good naturedly. "Ah! I was wondering when this would happen. Perhaps our ancestors can dispell some of the doubt and dissention within our ranks."  
Anazali and Urthel agreed. Nabiki's songbirds began to chirp in expectation.  
Minhiriath joined Ryoga and smiled. "Answers will be forthcoming, Ryoga."  
Ferguson looked to his white sensor boxes, which Nimatar had allowed to be set up to record the event data. Other sensors began whirring and he had his hands full trying to monitor them all, even with the help of Katy and Clay. He wished for the days of big trailers and dozens of assistants. On the other hand, he'd seen and done more in two weeks without them than he had in the past two years. "This is bloody well fantastic!" he exclaimed to nobody in particular.  
Ranma and Akane stood up, hand in hand. The rest of the Maiar began watch them as they walked to the center of the circle. The wind gusted more, what was once cold and bitter was now warm and sweet smelling.  
Ryoga watched them go. He looked to Hiro.  
"What's going on? What are Akane and Ranma doing?"  
Hiro crossed his eyes at that one. "Long story, but I'll sum up. Somehow these two got picked by a bunch of spirits from some ancient civilization that was destroyed in some flood. -You know, lost continent of Atlantis and all of that. Anyways they got picked to stop this other survivor named Sarophan who's planning on harnessing this energy source that's gonna end up causing the same disaster all over again. These events are how the ghosts talk to them."  
Ryoga affected his best baffled look.  
"Hey, you asked," Hiro told him curtly.  
Sparkles of light began to flash around the bowl. Maiar began to join hands and sing. Anazali took Aerandir's hand, who took Nabiki's. Nabiki snatched up Kuno's without a word, and the swordsman had the presence of mind to take Hiro's. Hiro took Ryoga's hand, and in turn he clasped Minhiriath's. So it went until all present were joined save for Ranma and Akane in the center of the bowl.  
The wind rushed a third time and began to swirl around them. The flashes of light became brighter and larger. The voices of the Maiar joined in song rose and rose until they could be heard over the wind. Innael and her sisters knew the song well, and it seemed in that moment that their voices and harmony were multiplied a thousand fold.  
"Here goes," Ranma said to Akane. "Hopefully we gotta do this just one more time after this one."  
Akane nodded in reply.  
The event rushed in from the lines and exploded at the junction that the ancient Maia who was known to some as Wiraqocha had made with his hand and heart. His own song joined those of his assembled kin from across space and time. Golden light spilled from out of nowhere and bathed all present in its warming radiance.  
Ranma and Akane were lifted off the ground, and spun slowly within the whirlwind that was the very heart of the event.

The vision exploded into view before their eyes. They were in the garden they had seen from the event in Spain. Great black mountains circled the garden, towering high above them on all sides. The sky was dark and they watched storm clouds gathering above them. The stone lions appeared in front of them. Water spilled from their mouths as it had before. This time wherever the water fell flowers sprang up in hundreds of colors and varieties. The lions walked towards the center of the garden, and Ranma and Akane followed hand in hand.  
At the center of the garden stood Ukyo. She was clad in her okonomiyaki chef's clothes. She held her battle spatula in an en guarde stance. She was standing before the prism, the white pyramid they had seen in previous visions. It was but four feet tall and sat upon a base of black basalt. The lions stood around the prism and wept from their eyes as well as their mouths.  
Ranma reached out to Ukyo, to pull her away from the prism. She responded by swatting him savagely with her spatula. Ranma was knocked twenty feet back. He rolled to his feet a little stunned, not just by the force of the blow but by the fact that Ukyo had struck him.  
"Ucchan!" he called to her.  
He got back to his feet and started towards her again.  
"Be careful, Ranma!" Akane told him. "Something's wrong with her!"  
"You ain't kidding," Ranma grunted. "That wasn't Ukyo's usual love tap. She hit me full force."  
He came within arm's reach and stopped. Ukyo eyed him warily, keeping her battle spatula pulled back to swing.  
"Ucchan, it's me, Ranchan," he said softly to her. "I'm you're friend, remember?"  
He offered her his hand.  
"Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here, huh?" He reached for her, and she clobbered him again. He had never seen her move so fast. The first blow came down squarely on top of his head, buckling his knees and making him bite his tongue. The second and third blows landed on either side of his head, boxing his ears and dropping him to the ground. She deftly scooped him up before he could lie prone at her feet and threw him a good thirty feet.  
"Ranma!" Akane cried. "Ukyo, why? You're our friend!"  
~Look again, Akane.~ The lions told her.  
She looked back to Ukyo. A strange aura glowed around her. It looked like an older man with a beard and silver eyes. She had never seen the man before, but knew him to be Sarophan.  
Ranma was just coming to his senses. He spat out blood from his tongue and looked sternly to Ukyo. "I thought you and I were friends... I didn't want to do this, since I don't fight girls, but you aren't giving me much choice! I tried to be nice!"  
~Look again, Ranma.~ He stopped in midcharge and looked closely at Ukyo. He saw the aura of Sarophan around her. He grit his teeth and cast a hard glance to the lions.  
"So what are we supposed to do? Fight this guy Sarophan if we want to save Ukyo?"  
The stone lions were silent.  
"I thought you were supposed to be helping us! You got Akane and me doing your dirty work for you, howzabout a little goddamn help here!"  
~Look to yourselves within yourselves.~ "What?" Ranma spluttered.  
Akane understood.  
"Ranma! Take my hand!"  
"What?"  
"You said it yourself, dummy! There is a part of each of us inside the other! We aren't strong enough unless we can use all of ourselves at once. We can't do that without each other!"  
Ranma understood.  
He took hold of Akane's hand. Power flowed through them. More power than they had ever felt in their lives. The image of Sarophan faded from Ukyo, who smiled for them as she lowered her spatula and faded from sight as well.

The world exploded back into view around them. The winds lowered them gently to the ground as the last of the light sparkled away. The Maiar were still singing, their voices lowered reverently as the last of the energy trickled away.  
The two settled down upon the grass and held onto each other. Hiro, Nabiki, Kuno and Ryoga came up to them. Aerandir and the other Maia finished their song. Their ancestors had spoken to them, and they knew the proper course of action to take.  
"Are you two okay?" Hiro asked.  
"Yeah," Ranma replied. "We're all right."  
"What did you see?" Nabiki asked. "It must have shook you up pretty bad. You both look as pale as ghosts."  
"We saw Ukyo," Ranma said.  
"She was fighting us to keep us away from the prism," Akane added. "We couldn't get her to stop."  
Nabiki looked as if she had been struck. She had feared this since Paris. She had hoped that it would never happen.  
"Ukyo?" she cried. "I'm sorry, Nabiki," Akane said. "I know how much she means to you. She's our friend too."  
Hiro moved to place a reassuring hand on Nabiki's shoulder, only to have Tatewaki Kuno's hand get there first. The swordsman gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze. The songbirds chirped and twittered in an attempt to cheer her up.  
Nabiki looked absolutely devastated.  
"It's my fault," she said sadly. "I shouldn't have left her there with Sarophan."  
Aerandir came up behind them. "No, Nabiki, if there was ever blame it should be laid before my feet. I should have asked her to join us."  
"Who cares about blame?" Ranma cried. "It doesn't matter now! What matters is doing whatever it takes to get this guy Sarophan's meat hooks out of her. I'll tear his damn heart out with my bare hands if I have to, but no one does that to Ucchan!"  
He looked up to the sky.  
"You hear me Sarophan?!" he bellowed. "Nobody does this to Ucchan and gets away with it! NOBODY!!!"

End of Part Nine

Author's Notes:

1) My presentations of Andean myth and culture are derived from the marvelous book "The Secret of the Incas," by William Sullivan, Ph.D., and published by Crown Publishers. It's a fascinating look at how ancient myths are encoded with astronomical clues to provide an accurate timeline of events for a culture with no written language.

2) Wiraqocha is the name of the Andean peoples' creation god. In keeping with the spirit of the Elohim from the Kharsag Epic (See my note in Part Six) I have made Wiraqocha one of the surviving Maia from the drowned continent. If you look close, the skills and morals Wiraqocha taught the Andean peoples are uncannily similar to what the Elohim taught the peoples of Mesopotamia. Makes you wonder just how fictional the legends of Atlantis are, doesn't it?

3) For those of you who have never seen the Herald of the Nazarene, it probably means that you aren't at least 2000 years old. You figure it out.

4) Thanks always to those beautiful souls who provide C&C. Your voice is heard and usually taken seriously. (Unless you're an Ukyo fan with an axe to grind, right Sean? :P)

5) Tune in sometime before November 20th for the big finale of Chasing the Wind. ('Cause if I don't get it done by then I turn into a pumpkin!) I don't know how big it's gonna be, but I'm betting at least 30,000 words. (At least!)

6) As Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) said in the classic John Carpenter flick "Big Trouble in Little China" : "Sonuvabitch must pay!"

Free the Nukes!


	10. Chapter 10

J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:

CHASING THE WIND

Part Ten: Finale and Aftermath

By J. Austin Wilde, K.B.C.S.

Super Critical Reactor Axe Man,

Fission Park 1/2 is the creation and

Property of Rumiko Takahashi and

Shogakukan/KITTY TV/VIZ.

"Oh I feel it, coming back again...

Like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind.

Forces pulling from the center of the Earth again...

I can feel it."

-"Lightning Crashes," written by Edward Kowalczyk.

Copyright (C) 1994 Loco de Amor Music

Chapter One

Hiro Ohata knew they were headed for trouble, and there wasn't

much he could do about it. Ryoga wasn't listening to reason. All he

could do was follow the guy and hope for the best. He had his H&K G-3

automatic rifle slung over his shoulder just in case.

It had started early that morning, the day after the Conclave.

Fortunately Hiro was an early riser, otherwise he would have missed

Ryoga standing outside Ranma and Akane's tent in slack jawed

shock. He had caught that wild glint of anger in Ryoga's eyes and

grabbed for his rifle. Kuno continued to sleep like the dead within

the tent, but there was no sense in having two raving lunatics to deal

with at the break of dawn.

He threw on his camouflage pattern fatigue trousers and boots, and

settled for wearing his olive drab tank top as he clutched at the rifle

on his way out of the tent. In many ways he was dressed just like Ryoga,

missing only the bandanna. He reached Ranma and Akane's tent and

peeked in as Ryoga stomped off through the camp. Inside lay their

luggage and those few personal effects they had brought with them.

A sleeping mat lay bare and unused on the floor of the tent. All of the

blankets were gone.

It didn't take a genius to realize that the two were enjoying a

rather passionate love affair. Somehow that didn't stop the likes of

Kuno from noticing, but perhaps that was an answer in itself. Now it

seemed the truth had dawned upon Ryoga, and the fanged wanderer had not

seemed amused. Not at all.

He had tried to gently steer Ryoga back to the camp and a little

breakfast. Ryoga hadn't given him so much as a snort in reply. Then

he mentioned that it was still pretty chilly out, and rubbed at his arms

for effect. Ryoga continued to ignore him.

Finally Ryoga had grown weary of his shadow and threw him against

one of the walls of the ruins and asked him in a loud voice if he knew

where Ranma was. Hiro had a few ideas but denied it. Ryoga had let

him go and told him to go back to camp. Hiro had prevailed upon him

that he might get lost without him. Grudgingly, Ryoga let him follow.

And so there they were, stomping around the ruins looking for

Ranma, and of course Akane, although Ryoga hadn't once mentioned

her by name. Hiro wasn't sure what Ryoga was going to do when he

found Ranma, and even more so because he knew Akane was going

to be with him. He had no intention of shooting Ryoga if it came down

to it, but the weight and feel of the rifle against his back was a

comfort.

They searched for an hour, and in that time Hiro prayed Ryoga

would calm down. The wait only incensed him further. When they did

finally find Ranma and Akane, Ryoga was a boiler about to lift a safety

valve.

The two were curled up cozily in each other's arms, fast asleep in

a wrap of warm blankets. Their clothes were folded neatly in a corner

of the ruined building, and wrapped in a plastic bag to keep the dew

off of them. They looked adorable, but under the circumstances it was

probably only making matters worse.

Ryoga stood over them seething somewhere between rage and

anguish. Tears streamed slowly down his face. Hiro watched quietly,

giving Ryoga one last chance to come to his senses. Fighting the guy

was last thing Hiro wanted. He felt like living to see another sunrise.

After a minute of watching them sleep peacefully oblivious to him,

he could bear no more.

"RANMA SAOTOME, PREPARE TO DIE!!!"

Ranma slowly opened his eyes as Akane started awake in his arms.

The two looked up at Ryoga Hibiki standing over them. Ryoga was

pulsing with anger, they could see it streaming from his body.

"Hey Ryoga," Ranma muttered groggily to him. "Don't you think

it's a little early for death threats? Come back in a little while,

okay?"

He snuggled close to Akane again and went back to sleep. Akane

continued to stare at Ryoga, and her face flushed red. Ranma was

already snoring softly at the nape of her neck.

Ryoga's safety valve lifted.

"RRRAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!"

He lunged towards him, only to have his death strike caught by

Ranma, who was still half asleep. Hiro leaped at Ryoga to stop him.

With his free hand Ryoga backhanded Hiro across the face and sent

him flying to the ground. In the meantime Ranma wrenched Ryoga

into the air and threw him over the top of the low ruined wall.

Ryoga landed on his feet and into a fighting stance. Ranma jumped

up out of the makeshift bed and assumed a stance to counter Ryoga's

most likely lead off attack. He was too angry to notice how cold it was

without any clothes on.

Akane stood up and clutched the blanket to her body. Hiro was

just getting off the ground with blood streaming from his nose. He

pinched it to staunch the flow. Akane had seen enough broken noses

on Ranma to know that Hiro was still more or less intact.

"Dat wasn't berry dice Ryoga," Hiro muttered angrily to him, blood

dripping down his chin.

"Ryoga! What do you think you're doing?" Akane cried.

Ryoga gave her a desperately hurt look and then snarled at Ranma.

Ranma stood fast, waiting for Ryoga to make his move. Ryoga was too

upset to do anything but glare and tremble. They were in a stand off.

"Look Ryoga, this ain't the time or the place for a fight," Ranma

growled. "But if you really want to take my head off, you can meet

me back here in an hour."

Ryoga looked at him standing naked before him, and then to Akane,

who was obviously naked as well beneath the blankets she held close

to herself. His knuckles popped as he flexed his fingers in rage.

"Consider it the last hour of your worthless life," Ryoga returned

bitterly. He turned and ran back towards camp. If not for the dread

that hung in the air, they might have appreciated the fact that he ran

off in the right direction for once.

Hiro reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a rag

to dabble at his nose.

"Sorry Saotome, I tried to stop him."

Ranma looked down at himself, realizing that he was naked, and

then back to Hiro.

"It ain't your fault," he replied evenly. "I don't think you could

have stopped him without one of you getting killed." He walked

over to the plastic bag with their clothes and began getting dressed.

"You can't be serious, Ranma!" Akane yelled at him. "Why do you

two always have to fight?"

"Hey it ain't like I asked him to come out here at the crack of

dawn and start howling for my blood!" Ranma snapped back at her.

"Don't yell at me!" Akane gave back with equal venom.

"I ain't yellin' at you!"

"Sounds like it from here," Hiro observed.

"Butt out!" Ranma and Akane cried in unison.

Hiro waved his bloody rag at them.

"Butting out," he said, and turned to go. "I'll see about getting

some shovels and maybe a pick to go dig the grave. I have the bad

feeling someone's gonna be needing one."

He walked about ten meters before saying to himself (but in a voice

loud enough for the two to hear), "I had hoped that the spilling of one

person's blood this morning was enough..."

The two watched him go and suddenly felt a little guilty for

snapping at him.

Akane began to dress silently. Ranma shook out the blankets and

then folded them up.

"Man, this day's already shot to hell..." Ranma mumbled.

"I still don't see what you're trying to accomplish by challenging

him to another fight," Akane said to him in a calmer voice.

"I'm gonna try an' reason with him first," he replied. "I'm hopin'

the hour will give him a chance to calm down. Then if it comes to it,

I'll fight."

"What's he so mad about anyway? What did you do to him this

time?"

Ranma looked her over.

"I slept with you."

Akane's eyes widened, and then realization dawned upon her.

"You don't think he's still...?"

"Uh huh. He saw us out here in each other's arms and snapped."

Akane nodded her head in agreement. There couldn't be any

other explanation for Ryoga's behavior. Not when he had been so

happy to find them yesterday.

"Promise me you'll try real hard not to fight," she said to him.

Ranma raised his hand. "I don't want to want fight him anyway,

so I promise."

"Do you want me to be there?"

He shook his head. "No, I think that just might set him off again.

Plus there are a few things I gotta say to him that I'd rather not say

in front of you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Trust me on this. You don't want to be there."

She looked at him dubiously.

"Okay... But remember that I have your promise, and you always

keep your promises."

Akane sent Hiro along in her stead. Hiro would have showed up

anyway, but now it was as a favor to her. His nose still throbbed

where Ryoga had smacked him, but at least the bleeding had stopped.

"As if I could refuse her anyway," he said to himself. The G-3

was still slung over his back. This time it was going to be the

referee.

Ranma caught up to him as he started for the appointed place.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Hiro pointed to the ruined building in the distance.

Ranma shook his head.

"Sorry Saotome," Hiro replied. "Someone's gotta dig the graves."

He held up the shovel he carried in his hand. "Might as well be me.

Hope the ground isn't too cold..."

"No one's going to get killed," Ranma said confidently. "Ryoga

and me always fight. You know that."

"Yeah, but I've never seen that weird glint in his eye before.

Ever. I've seen you piss him off before, and it's nothing like the

look I saw this morning. He wants blood."

He held up the shovel again.

"I figure what you said to me was right. Someone's gonna get killed

trying to stop him."

Ranma laughed it off.

Ryoga was waiting for them in the ruins. Ranma couldn't believe it.

He figured on a few hours, days even, before Ryoga managed to find

his way back to the appointed place.

He's big-time focused... Ranma thought as he surveyed

Ryoga doing warm-up exercises. Hiro might be right...

"I see that you brought your grave digger," Ryoga observed,

gesturing to Hiro and his shovel.

Hiro bowed mockingly for him.

"You guys are stupid for doing this," he told them.

"Shut up Ohata!" Ryoga barked at him.

"Let me handle this, Hiro," Ranma added.

Hiro shrugged and sat up on a wall to watch. He dropped the

shovel at his feet.

Ranma returned his attention to Ryoga.

"Can I at least explain myself?"

"What's there to explain?!" Ryoga bellowed. "How dare you do

such a thing with Akane?! You've... You've..." He settled for

trembling with rage when the words failed him.

Ranma crossed his arms over his chest.

"Akane is an adult," he began. "What she and I do together is

absolutely none of your business."

Ryoga began to crackle.

"Furthermore, I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to explain last

night because things were so crazy after the Conclave, but I asked

Akane to marry me last week. She said yes. We're engaged for real

now."

"That doesn't make any goddamn difference!" Ryoga shouted

back. "You aren't married yet!"

"I said it wasn't any of your business! That's between me and

Akane. You aren't anywhere in there, got it?"

It was too much; Ryoga charged.

"YOU DIE!!!"

Ranma straight-armed him. Hiro did a double take, because it

seemed that the air around the pig-tailed martial artist warped and

flowed into him. Ryoga was flung backwards into a wall with a

heavy thud.

Ryoga picked himself up out of a pile of stone bricks and brushed

at his arms. He was slightly bruised and cut, but seemingly unfazed

for being thrown through a stone wall. Hiro was flabbergasted.

"Ryoga, I don't understand you," Ranma said evenly. "I've tried

to be your friend... I've tried to let bygones be bygones... I've been

keeping this goddamn P-Chan thing away from Akane for three years

now, and I've been tempted -oh I've been tempted- to spill the beans

just to get you out of my life! But I haven't... Because I still want

you for my friend."

Ryoga spat out a little blood and started coming back towards him

warily.

Ranma tried to continue, Ryoga interrupted him.

"You destroy everything in my life, and you tell me that you are my

friend?!" Ryoga snarled. He clenched his fists tight.

Ranma couldn't believe this. He was trying to be rational; hell he

was even being more accommodating than Ryoga deserved. It was almost too

much, but he remembered his promise to Akane.

"Ryoga..."

"Shut up!"

Ryoga threw himself at Ranma and began striking dozens of blows

that Ranma either blocked or dodged. In an instant Ryoga was thrown

backwards through the hole he had previously made in the wall with

another straight-arm. Once again Hiro saw the air warp and melt into

Ranma as he struck.

"I've been going easy on you, Ryoga. I promised Akane that I'd

try to talk to you, and not fight. But you aren't making this easy my

friend."

"For the way you have shamed Akane there can be no forgiveness!"

Ryoga shouted back at him. He was on his feet again and unfazed by

the blow he had received. "And you mock me when you call me friend!

Never again!"

Ranma threw up his hands in disgust.

"I'm sick and tired about hearing how it's always the world versus

Ryoga Hibiki!" Ranma yelled at him. "You wanna know something? I

am not responsible for your Jusenkyo curse! If you hadn't decided to

become such a goddamn martyr over the bread feud, you never would

have left Japan! I am not responsible for any of the messes you've

gotten yourself into and blamed me for! Just once in your life take

some responsibility for yourself and your own actions! No one wants

to hear your sob story anymore, and LEAST OF ALL ME!!!"

The muscles on Ryoga's neck began to pop out like thick cords.

His arms swelled as he flexed all his muscles. His face was a twisted

mask of anguish and despair. Lightning swift he threw out his hands,

and the fireball of ki energy blossomed forth.

"SHI SHI HOKODAN!!!"

The blast struck Ranma dead on, catapulting him backwards in a

coruscating spray of light. He landed hard on the chilled ground and

spat out a clod of dirt.

"Now I'm pissed," Ranma growled. "You want to die so badly,

I'll see what I can do for you."

They flew at each other once more, fists and feet lashing out

viciously. Blows landed, yet neither would flinch or fall. The ferocity

of it frightened Hiro, who could barely see any of it for it's speed

and intensity. They were literally going to kill each other, whether

they intended to or not.

So he did the only thing he could think of.

KA-CHOW! KA-CHOW! KA-CHOW! KA-CHOW! KA-CHOW!

There was just enough rational mind between the two of them, and

just enough of the old soldier for them to hit the deck when the sound

of gunfire came crashing in on them. Dirt clods from the bullets'

impacts around them spattered their bodies and stung wherever

they hit exposed flesh.

They looked up at Hiro, and to the smoke wafting from the barrel

of the G-3 in his hands. The weapon was leveled at the two of them.

That 7.62mm rifle was looking a lot like a 155mm howitzer from their

perspective.

"That's about goddamn enough!" He screamed at them. He then

jumped down from the wall and kicked the shovel at them. He held

the rifle at high guard as he yelled.

"You think I brought this fucking shovel so I could bury you?!"

They looked at him in silence.

"Wrong! I brought the shovel to remind you of how fucking stupid

you're acting! Both of you! Did it ever occur to you that the rest of us

want you alive?!"

He leveled the rifle at Ryoga's forehead. Ryoga was to ready to

spring at him.

"You slapped the shit out of me and gave me a bloody nose; for

that I oughta blow your fucking brains out Hibiki! Am I overreacting?!

Good! That's exactly what you're doing, you fucking moron! Do

you see that now?!"

Ryoga growled and looked like he was willing to chance a bullet

to get to Hiro.

Hiro capped off a quick burst that sailed inches over Ryoga's head.

"Back the fuck off!" Hiro screamed at him as the brass shell

casings jingled along the stones of the ruined wall. "We need Ranma

alive a lot more than we need you!"

Ryoga gave him a hate filled look.

"Hiro..." Ranma said uneasily.

"Don't think for a minute that I won't splatter your head all over

this ruin Hibiki," Hiro growled with equal hatred. "You're number one

on my shit list this morning. Now back off."

Ryoga edged slowly away from the two. When he was ten meters

back, he began to stand up.

"No funny stuff," Hiro snarled, keeping the rifle square on Ryoga's

chest. "I even think you're gonna pull some of that mumbo-jumbo

ki bullshit, and I'm sending you home to Japan in a box."

"Okay Hiro, everything's cool." Ranma soothed. "You aren't

gonna shoot Ryoga."

"Shut the fuck up, Saotome!"

"Hiro!" Akane's voice cried behind them.

Ranma looked to see Akane, Nabiki, Kuno, Aerandir, and

Minhiriath running towards them. Several Maia with spears were

close behind.

"Okay Hiro, the cavalry's here. Put down the rifle." Ranma told him.

Hiro gave Ryoga one last look of contempt before lowering the rifle.

"Stupid asshole," Hiro whispered to him. "Doesn't know his friends

when he's got 'em."

Aerandir hopped up on the wall and regarded them.

"Perhaps we could discuss this without the firearms?" He suggested.

"I was just leaving," Hiro replied. He picked up the shovel.

"Hopefully I won't be needing this now."

"What's going on here?" Nabiki cried. "We're having breakfast and

then the shooting starts! We thought it was the Russians again."

"Everything's okay," Ranma assured them. "We just got a little

carried away, but everything's cool." He looked to Ryoga. "Right,

Ryoga?"

Ryoga looked up at him with tear stained eyes.

"Yeah, everything is fine..." He muttered softly.

"There, you see?" Ranma said. He took Akane's hand and Hiro's

shoulder, and began to walk them back towards camp. "I can't believe

I'm missing breakfast!"

Kuno and Nabiki saw no further reason to hang around either, and

followed their lead.

Aerandir seemed satisfied that there wasn't going to be any further

disturbances, and dismissed the three spear armed Maia. The spectral

white flames on their spearheads sparkled away into nothingness, and

they returned to their posts.

"You promised me, Ranma," Akane told him sternly, but in a voice

low enough not to be heard by Nabiki or Kuno.

"I tried!" He hissed in response. "He hit me with that damn Shi Shi

Hokodan. What do you want me to do, stand there and take it?"

"He did try, Akane-chan," Hiro added softly.

Ranma looked at him. "And you... What's the big idea shooting at

us like that?"

"What?!" Akane cried.

"I had to stop you two from killing each other," Hiro replied

calmly. "The only way I could think of was to give you a common

enemy."

Ranma gave him a hard look. A look Akane shared.

Hiro shrugged. "Hey, it worked in Korea. Every time you'd start

fighting each other, they'd start shelling us, and you'd forget your

differences."

"What about threatening to kill Ryoga?"

"What?!" Akane cried a second time.

"I take it mine was a convincing performance?" Hiro asked.

Now it was Ranma's turn to cry, "what?!"

"Guess so," Hiro remarked. "Well I got you to calm down, and I

just wanted to ram it down his throat how stupid he was acting. Plus

I wanted him hating me more than he did you. I guess I pissed him

off pretty good."

"So you weren't serious about shooting him?"

"Of course not. I just bluffed him, that's all."

"Hiro! Ryoga would have ripped you limb from limb if he had

rushed you."

"Chance I had to take. I figured he was smart enough to realize

that I could squeeze the trigger before he could reach me. He was,

I might add. I just needed to freak out on him to convince him I was

capable of killing him."

"That was dumb, Hiro. Real dumb. Don't ever pull that stunt again."

Hiro laughed. "What can I say? I did what I could to keep the two

of you alive and in one piece."

Ranma thumped his shoulder. "Thanks man, but I think you should

leave Ryoga to me next time."

Akane thumped Ranma on the head.

"Oww! What was that for?"

"Promise or not, I should have known better than to think you could

get along with Ryoga," she said evenly.

"Hey! I kept my promise! I never said I wouldn't fight him; I just

said I'd try not to. And I did!"

She stuck her tongue out at him. He returned in kind. Hiro rolled

his eyes at this.

Ranma stowed his tongue and gave her hand a squeeze. "So when

do you want to start training?" He asked her.

Akane hadn't really been sure that he was serious about the subject.

She had chalked it up to wishful thinking and wistful pillow talk. Her

heart leapt at his words.

"Y-You mean it?"

"Yeah I mean it. I think it's important we learn to fight together.

Especially for what's ahead, but I also mean on down the line. You

never know what's gonna happen when this is all said and done."

"You amaze me Ranma..." She said softly.

Ranma rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. "Yeah, well you

should be used to that by now."

Akane brought her elbow down on the top of his head. Ranma's

knees buckled and he dropped like an empty sack of rice. Hiro jumped

away in surprise. Akane leaned over and looked at him as he rubbed

at the top of his head.

"It amazes me how you can be such a jerk and so nice to me in the

same conversation," she told him. "An hour after breakfast sound okay?"

He rubbed at his head and a few of the choicer scathing remarks

about uncuteness mustered on the tip of his tongue, but then she

wrinkled her nose at him and smiled. He hated it when she did that.

She is so damn cute...

"Sounds fine," he said, and the scathing remarks fled in terror

before her wrinkling nose. She smiled impishly again for him, and he

began to suspect that she knew just exactly what that little nose

wrinkle of hers did to him. She helped him to his feet and kissed him

briefly upon his lips; all the sweeter for it's brevity.

Minhiriath let Ryoga stew for awhile before speaking.

"Ryoga my friend, if you don't let out some of what's eating you,

there won't be anything left inside but ashes and hollow bones picked

clean. Take this from someone who has lived a very long time."

Ryoga looked up at him. His eyes were blazing red bloodshot.

"It's hard facing a reality you've worked so hard to deny..." He

replied quietly.

"Is this about Akane? How she is with Ranma?"

Ryoga nodded slowly. "How did you know?" He tapped at his

temple and gave him a questioning look.

"No Ryoga, I don't read people's minds without their consent."

Minhiriath offered him a hand to pull him to his feet. "I have heard you

whisper that name several times in your sleep."

Ryoga accepted his hand and stood.

"I have loved her since the day we met. Ranma treated her like

dirt. He insulted her, he ran around with other girls, he never

appreciated her for how beautiful she was -inside and out. I always

tried to prove how worthy I was of her love, hoping that she would

see it and come to love me back."

He looked away and a tear fell down his face. He wiped at it

fiercely, ashamed at his weakness.

"But she loved him anyway... Even if she couldn't tell him... I

saw it and I didn't want to believe it. He loved her back, even if he

couldn't admit it to himself. But I saw how much he did. I saw that

and didn't want to believe it. Even if he did love her, he wasn't

worthy of it for the things he'd done. I thought I was worthy, that

it would make a difference."

He bit back a sob. Instead he crushed a stone into powder with

his bare hand. Minhiriath noted the drops of blood that mingled with

the white stone powder and made a sanguine mud at his feet.

"I tried to deny it..." He went on in a bitter voice. "Last winter

I saw it for the first time. How much they loved each other, openly,

each knowing the other's feelings. They were so happy together, and I

knew that I had lost her for good... So I went away to China to try and

find the cure for my curse."

He stopped speaking and trembled. Minhiriath sensed that he had

the power to raze the ruins even unto the ground. He was struggling

with those demonic forces of jealousy and hatred inside him even now.

"Why then? What did you hope to accomplish that you chose the

middle of winter for your search?" Minhiriath asked him. Better to get

him talking again before he exploded. Depression fueled his power, the

Maia could see it building within him. He needed an out, one that

wouldn't set off seismographs in Bombay.

"Akane doesn't know about my curse," Ryoga muttered. "To her,

the little black pig that she loves is just a pet. I was content to be

her pet, just so I could feel her love in some small way... I knew that

Ranma was going to ask her to marry him when the war ended. He

knew about my curse and yet he never told her. But I knew he

wouldn't tolerate me as Akane's pet. My life as P-Chan and the

love of Akane ended with that Christmas Eve. Going to China was just

going to make that end irreversible. It would be easier for all of us

that way."

Minhiriath nodded and gave him a squeeze of his shoulder.

"So why the fight, Ryoga? What was that going to accomplish?"

Ryoga grit his teeth.

"I begrudge Ranma his love for her. Even if it hurts to admit it to

myself. But having sex with her before they are married...?! That was

the lowest degradation he could possibly do to her. She was so

innocent and pure... He despoiled her... I hate him for it."

"Marriage customs vary around the world Ryoga. In many senses

it is only a formality between two people who have already decided

to share their lives until the end of their days. I confess that I see

such a bond between Ranma and Akane. That they choose to express

that joining of lives with a physical joining is no despoilment of her."

"It's wrong..." Ryoga growled. "He should have proposed to her

a long time ago and been married already."

"Then you must hate Akane as well as Ranma," Minhiriath replied

sternly. "For she chose to make love to him as much as he chose to

make love to her. You cannot hate the one for his choice without

hating the other. To do so would be to veil yourself in more delusions

and lies. I do not think your soul can long endure the weight of

another layer of deception."

Ryoga barked out that sob that had long been building up inside

him. His breath caught in stutters, and he clutched at himself and

shook.

"I can't hate her..." He cried. "But I can't go on like this

either..."

Minhiriath felt the young man's depression balloon out of control.

Ryoga was spiraling down into self-destruction. He could sense very

strongly that Ryoga was prepared to end his life. Soon. He had to

act, else he would lose Ryoga for all time.

Restraining him would not help; it would only spark a rage that

could not hope to contain him, and would end only in his death.

There was something else. It was the only shred of hope in his life,

but he was incapable of reaching for it in his current state. He

needed someone to throw it to him.

As Ryoga fell to his knees and wept, Minhiriath gathered

himself up from within. Such as what he was attempting he had

not done in an age; the very breaking down of a person's psychic

defenses with all of the subtlety and power of a wrecking ball. As

hard as he could, he formed the image in his mind, gathered up

from the little snippets he'd collected from what spilled from

Ryoga's head in the past week. He did not actively read people's

minds, but surface thoughts and dreams spilled forth for those

who could see them. He took hold of Ryoga's shoulders and let fly.

AKARI!!!!

The name rocked across Ryoga's soul, followed by the images

of her from his dreams. Sweet, loving, unassuming, and gentle

Akari. She who loved him unconditionally. The beautiful girl who

would wait until the end of the world for him.

He was not worthy of her love, he told himself, but she gave

all of her heart to him anyway.

Ryoga dropped down into a ball, face pressed down into the cold

dew of the grass. His tears mingled with the dew. His breaths came

hot and rapid. The sobs died away after awhile. Minhiriath looked on

with relief. He was pulling himself back from the brink.

"Though she does not ask anything more of you than yourself, if

there was ever a woman to prove your worthiness to, I would say it

was her." He told Ryoga. "Spend yourself in something fine and

enduring, my friend."

Ryoga looked up at him. Tears continued to spill down his face,

but his countenance was peaceful. What hatred that burned within

him could not abide by the feelings that welled from his heart,

burning so fiercely that the hatred was itself consumed.

"This world would weep to see you leave it so soon," Minhiriath

told him. "There are many within this camp alone who would weep

as well, and Ranma Saotome would be one of them."

Ryoga nodded, at once realizing that it was true. He flushed red

with shame at the memory of their fight only minutes ago. Ranma

hadn't wanted to fight him, but he had been blinded by the rage

and couldn't see it for what it was. Ranma had insisted that they

were friends, even in spite of what had transpired.

His thoughts drifted to a bitter November morning in Korea.

Kuno lay half dead at their feet, and they were lost in No-Man's

land. All they had was each other.

He had come up with a crude stretcher using two long branches

and the fatigues of their dead comrades. Ranma lay Kuno upon it,

and together they picked up the fallen swordsman.

"He's bad, isn't he." He had said. It was a statement, not a

question.

"Yeah..."

"Anything we can do for him?"

"I don't think so. I put a dressing on him, but he needs surgery.

And blood, he's almost bled white."

"We gotta keep him warm, I took Nomura's jacket."

"Yeah..."

"Ranma?"

"What is it?"

"Do you know where you're going?"

"Yeah..."

They walked in silence. Ranma didn't care about snipers anymore,

they were as good as dead no matter who caught them. He still had

his carbine, but that was the only weapon they had left.

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you come out here after us?"

Ranma was silent a little longer.

"I came out looking for you, Ryoga."

"Me? Why? We've been enemies all our lives."

"'Cause you're the only friend I got right now..."

His mind moved forward a few weeks to an icy ridge of the

Taebaek Range. The snow flurried around them, concealing the

terrible deaths they had inflicted upon their enemies. Ryoga

remembered how sick he wanted to be, and remembered that

Ranma had shared that look.

He nodded as Ranma and Hiro joined him. His M-60 steamed as flakes

of snow melted upon the barrel. Flecks of red speckled his face and

fatigues. His face was a gaunt mask, in some ways mirroring their own.

"You okay, Ryoga?" Ranma had asked him.

"I'm fine, Ranma." He had replied flatly. "Thanks for asking,"

he had added.

Ranma tipped his helmet back with the muzzle of his rifle. "You're

my friend, Ryoga. Whether you like it or not."

He started marching as the team moved out. "Heh... It's

something I need to get used to, Ranma."

"Take your time," Ranma finished with a wave of his hand.

"I've taken enough time..." Ryoga said to himself.

"We need to work on your speed," Ranma observed as he

continued to effortlessly dodge Akane's attacks.

Akane lashed out with another spin kick. Ranma caught her

ankle and flipped her into the air. She screamed in surprise and

then once again as Ranma got underneath her and caught her

before she could hit the ground.

"Yup, that's the first thing we need to take care of," he told

her evenly as he cradled her.

Akane gave him a dirty look and slugged him across the jaw.

"Gotcha that time!" She huffed.

Ranma set her on her feet and rubbed at his jaw.

Hiro and Nabiki were sitting together watching them from one of

the walls of the ruins. Hiro laughed as she struck him. Nabiki offered

encouragement to her little sister. The songbirds sang an appropriate

inspirational piece, Gliere's Heroic March.

"I already know that you hit as hard as a piledriver," he told her.

"But if you can't connect, then all that brute strength ain't doing you

no good. People ain't stacks of bricks, you know; they try to keep

from getting hit."

"So you're saying that I'm no good?" Akane asked him. There

was hurt in her voice.

"I didn't say that!" Ranma protested. "Out of practice maybe,

but I've seen what you can do, Akane. All those fights every

morning at school when I first started living at the dojo... You

were outnumbered fifty to one by guys who were sometimes two

or three times bigger than you. You wiped them out in minutes."

He set his hands on his hips and looked at her. "You make the call."

Her expression brightened.

"Okay, but I'm not nearly as good as you, so what are you going

to do about that?"

He smiled. "I'm gonna make you faster."

"I thought you were supposed to be practicing fighting together?"

Nabiki called to him. The songbirds chirped in agreement upon the

wall at her side.

Ranma looked at the two hecklers and their little chorus sitting

on the wall.

"I have to practice against her to see what she can and can't do.

Then I gotta work with her to improve her weak areas. Then we

can practice fighting as one."

He turned back to Akane and whispered. "At the end of every day

we train I promise to fight together with you. We'll practice the Moko

Takabisha together too, 'cause it worked great when we did it in Paris,

and I want to see what we can really do."

Akane beamed at him, and her smile caught him speechless for a

moment.

He returned to his senses, and moved close against Akane's body.

Nabiki gave them a wolf-whistle, which made Hiro laugh again,

and the songbirds echoed. Ranma ignored them with a huff, but even

Akane giggled softly to herself.

"Move through a kick slowly," he told her.

Akane popped up on her toes as she threw out the kick in slow

motion. Ranma felt her body move against his through the kick;

noting the subtle nuances of muscle groups, limb extension, balance,

and focus. He realized what she was doing wrong.

"Hmmm..." He murmured. "Do that again, a little faster this time."

She looked over her shoulder and up at him. He waited patiently,

staying tight against her body, ready to follow her motion with his

own. She threw out the kick again, a bit faster than before. He

closed his eyes and moved through the kick with her, visualizing

what she was doing through her motion against him.

He was certain now.

"Okay, I know what the problem is here."

Akane looked at him. "What is it?"

"It's hard to explain in words, so just move with me like I was

doing with you, and I'll talk you through it."

"What's wrong with my kick?" She pressed, just a little hostility

in her voice.

"Nothing's really wrong with it, it's just that there's room for

improvement. To make you faster and harder to read. Now move

through the kick with me and feel the way I move."

She pressed close to him and he launched into a kick so slow

and graceful it was more like ballet than martial arts. Akane moved

with him, and after several such kicks she began to understand how

he was doing it. He stood away from her then and watched her

practice in slow motion on her own. There was already marked

improvement.

"Go Akane!" Nabiki cheered. Even she had caught the change;

the sudden grace her sister possessed. Without the usual overblown

High Octane Akane Horsepower, her kick was every bit as beautiful

as Ranma's.

"I want you to remember how to throw that kick. Practice it a

little bit faster each time until you can do it full speed every time.

Don't put any power into it yet, we'll work on that later." Ranma

told her. "You keep learnin' this stuff so quickly and it won't be

long till we get all of your moves at least twice as fast."

They practiced that way for the rest of the day; with Ranma

analyzing each strike, block, and dodge with that same intimate

attention to her body. From there he would walk her through the

move, and then leave her to practice it on her own. They took no

breaks, but continued on until the sun was getting low in the sky and

he high mountain chill began in earnest. Akane wouldn't rest until she

learned as much as she could.

Ryoga watched from the trees that encroached upon that part

of the ruins of Tiahuanaco where they trained. He couldn't help but

smile with pride for Akane's skill and newfound grace. He watched

Ranma train her, displaying a patience and understanding that had

been unthinkable three years ago. He smiled at that too, and realized

that Ranma had changed and grown since the days of his vendetta

against the pig-tailed martial artist.

It was he who had resisted that growth, had struggled against

change. He was only now beginning to appreciate what he had lost

as a result. This time he didn't put the blame on anyone else, nor

even himself. It was time to move past the blame and get on with

his life.

He nodded his head to Ranma in salute, and left them. Ranma

didn't see it, but perhaps for the moment it was better that way.

There would be time for that later.

"Okay, one more thing we gotta do today before we call it quits,"

Ranma told her as she whipped through a full speed form that was twice

as fast as before. She still couldn't touch him in a sparring match, but

he could see how quickly she had improved.

Akane bowed respectfully for Ranma as she completed her form.

It was a bow of the student to the teacher. Ranma shrugged and bowed

back.

"You don't have to do that you know," he told her. "You don't have

to bow to me. It doesn't seem right somehow."

"You've helped me improve more in one day than I have learned in

years of practice, Ranma." Akane replied. "You're a wonderful teacher.

I can see why the dojo was doing so well while you were helping dad

with the classes."

Ranma shrugged again. "Okay. I guess if you want to you can, just

don't think that you have to or something."

"Think that I have to bow to the great Ranma Saotome?" Akane

laughed. "Perish the thought! I'm doing it because I choose to."

He laughed with her, and then stood close to her side.

He took her right hand in his left and brought his right out to

his chest. It was a familiar pose with her, and she took her own

position for what was to follow. Her heart began to race in

anticipation.

"We were rushed the last time we did this," he said. "But this

time there's no hurry, so I want you to pay attention to what's going

on inside you. Feel it through like we did everything else today. And

remember: you can do this! Confidence in yourself is everything for

this attack."

He began the buildup within himself. Akane felt that part of him

inside of her glow with power. She closed her eyes and looked within

herself, then expanded her focus to include Ranma at her side and in

her hand. She saw how the power built up within him, glorious in it's

beauty, and felt the power begin to rush from her and into their hands.

They let it go into the air, a brilliant lance of ki energy that shot

across the purpling sky like golden lightning. It wasn't nearly as

powerful as the blast they had thrown in Paris, because Ranma wanted

to show her the technique first. Power would come later, once she had

mastered it within herself.

"That's it for today," he told her as the last of the ki sparkled

away into the darkness. "You did great, Akane."

She hugged him tightly.

"Thank you, Ranma."

He squeezed her in return.

"You're the girl I'm gonna marry," he whispered to her. "Gotta

make this an equal partnership."

Chapter Two

Ivan Tarchenko looked across the icy flat-top of the Russian

nuclear powered aircraft carrier Moskva, and to the men who

braved the freezing seaspray to brush away the ice that formed on

the tarps that covered the helicopters tied down to the deck. The

men worked long push brooms over the tarps as others pushed

the ice and slush over the side. Moskva pitched slowly, with great

inertia, as it steamed along through icy waters the color of steel.

The sky was the color of lead, lending its metallic ambiance to

the sea. They had come through a squall only last night, and the men

on the troopships were badly seasick. Moskva had weathered the

storm well because of its great mass. It was no American Nimitz

class, but it was still one of the largest warships in the world.

Fyodor was standing next to him in the Vulture Loft, a lookout

balcony in the 'island' superstructure that probed above the flight

deck. He was smoking a strong Turkish cigarette, the kind that

Tarchenko had recently become fond of. His dark eyes were lost

under the heavy brow and equally dark forelocks.

"You are no man of the sea, Fyodor," Tarchenko said to him.

It was far from the truth; Fyodor had once fished the Black Sea as

a boy. Before he joined the Soviet Naval Infantry and became

Spetznaz.

"Vye nepravye," Fyodor replied, smoke spilling from his mouth.

You're wrong.

"I am trying to provoke a reaction from you, Fyodor. You have

been far too quiet on this voyage, even for you."

"I am wondering if I will see them again where we are going..."

Fyodor grumbled.

"Who?"

"The boy with the pig-tail and his woman."

Tarchenko decided to light up. Smoke obscured his face as he

replied.

"I expect you will. They are the Wayfinders after all, for all of

the good it did us."

"I will enjoy killing them," he muttered. "I have been thinking

about how I will do it since Paris."

"When the time comes kill them and be done with it," Tarchenko

advised. "They are too dangerous to toy with. I would have thought

Paris had taught you that lesson already. The same goes for Casimir.

Kill him and be done with it. Quickly. He is an old man and though

he has betrayed us, he should have a quick death."

Fyodor took in a long drag on his cigarette.

"What is this adventure costing your employers?" He asked as his

dark gaze looked out upon the fleet spread out around Moskva.

"Yeltsin is too busy trying to get reelected to notice that some of

his admirals are tasking this force without his knowledge. By the time

he does, it will be a fait accompli for us."

"And you think the UN will tolerate our seizing of a part of

Antarctica? We have signed a treaty declaring the continent to be free

for all nations and owned by none."

"Your jokes fail to amuse me, Fyodor. You know as well as I that

once we have the Heart of the World that the old order of things will

cease to be. Power goes to the strong. The timid have no place here."

"And will the Americans tolerate us so close to one of their

research stations? McMurdo is very close to Ross Island. They are

watching us. With their satellites at the least."

"Once again, by the time they realize what we are doing, it will be

too late."

Night had fallen once again in the ruins of Tiahuanaco. The Maia

were having one final celebration. Tomorrow they would strike camp

and begin their trek to the Crown of Eternity.

Ranma and Akane walked hand in hand through the dancing and

singing throngs of Maia. They were looking for Nimatar's camp, as

that was where all of their friends were. They were not disappointed.

They found Professor McFogg, Doctor Casimir, and Mister Clay

at their usual place with Nimatar. Aerandir was there with Anazali

and Minhiriath. Nabiki danced with Hiro. Kuno chatted with one

of the Maia about swordsmanship; each man brandishing his blade

and moving through forms in slow motion to demonstrate their points.

Ferguson and Katy Price were dancing to a lively tune close by, the

first time they had seen the two ever get along so well.

Heironymous Durango and D-Day were there as well. Bettie's Dare

had set down in Lake Titicaca the day before. The two pilots were

drinking wine and flirting with young ladies of Maia heritage.

The only one missing was Ryoga. Ever since the fight he had been

keeping his distance. Ranma didn't sense hostility or resentment from

the man any more, but for some reason Ryoga was staying away. He

decided to let it be. Ryoga would talk when he was ready. He hoped.

" Ah! There you are! " McFogg said to Ranma and Akane.

" Come join us for just a minute of your time. "

Ranma and Akane did so. Chairs appeared for them without a

word from a pair of girls in Nimatar's household. Silver cups of wine

were set before them.

" I wanted to say good-bye for now, and I haven't had the chance

to do so until now, " the Professor told them.

" Good-bye? " Akane asked him.

" Yes. Just for a little while. Nimatar has graciously allowed us

to set up our equipment for the Heart of the World's arrival, and I must

fly back to London at first light to make the necessary preparations.

I'm afraid this adventure has almost reached it's conclusion. I'm almost

sorry to see it end, as I have grown rather fond of your company. I

leave you in the capable hands of Aerandir. "

Aerandir nodded in agreement. "Tomorrow morning we set sail for

the Crown of Eternity. We must leave before dawn for the coast."

"Set sail?" Ranma asked.

"We have several days before the Heart of the World's arrival,

and I have received news that my brother is no longer in my uncle's

house. It would be safest for you and Akane to accompany me as I sail

to Antarctica. My power is uncontested upon the sea."

Akane latched onto Ranma's arm. "Oh come on Ranma, it'll be fun!"

He gave her a questioning look. She returned with one that said she

wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. He decided that there were definitely

some battles better avoided.

"Okay, I guess we'll go."

"Good!" Akane cried. "Now that we've established who's in charge

here, I want to dance!"

"Who said anything about you being in cha---AAARRGE?!?!"

She pulled Ranma to his feet and out into the circle in mid reply.

Ranma gave a surprised yelp and followed at a stumble after her.

The ancient Nimatar laughed at the display as he stroked at his long

red beard.

"I have the feeling this occurs with great frequency between them,"

he observed.

Later that evening Tatewaki Kuno found Nabiki sitting atop a low

wall on the fringes of the celebration. She had a glass of wine dangling

in her hand and a faraway look in her eyes. Her songbirds were singing

along with the musicians. Maia danced and sang in their beautiful

language.

She noted his appearance with a casual flick of her mahogany bob

of hair and flashed him the faintest smile. She watched him fold his arms

across his chest from beneath the folds of a dark grey cloak lent to him

by Urthel. He was meaning to say something to her, and she found his

silence exasperating.

"Does the cat have thy tongue, Tate-chan?" She asked him when

she couldn't stand the silence any longer.

Kuno's eyes trembled for a moment at the mention of her pet name

for him. It was enough to jar him out of his reflection. He looked up at

her, and in that moment a chill breeze made her shiver.

"Art thou cold, Nabiki?"

Nabiki clicked her tongue. It wasn't quite what she was expecting

from him, but it was a start. She was used to working with very little

where Kuno was concerned. She hopped down from the wall, and set her

glass of wine upon it.

"That cloak looks very warm," she told him.

Kuno began to take it off. She stopped him with a touch of her

hand on his chest.

"I thought maybe we could share. No sense in making you cold,

eh, Tate-chan?"

Kuno froze up. Nabiki wasted no time in lifting his arm and

settling close to his side. She put his arm around her waist as she

put her own around his. The cloak settled over her shoulders, but all

the warmth came from Tatewaki Kuno.

"Nabiki..." he managed. He was probably going to say something

about propriety and her lack of decorum, but the words failed him.

"I thought we might take a walk for awhile while you get up the

nerve to speak to me," she told him. She began to lead him away

from the camp. Kuno followed at her side, and she smiled as his hand

became a little firmer around her waist.

They walked in silence for about twenty minutes, wandering through

the ruins of the city of Tiahuanaco. Nabiki didn't mind the silence now,

as she had Kuno right where she wanted him. For once she was glad

her girls hadn't tagged along. They probably knew that she didn't want

a chaperone.

"Nabiki," Kuno said suddenly. "Know that I am going off to fight

in what will certainly be a great battle..."

"I thought they were going to try and work this out," Nabiki

remarked.

"I fear that words will be to no avail," he replied. "We gird

ourselves for war and yet talk of peace? Nay, we shall fight."

There was something about his tone that bothered her.

"You want to fight, don't you?"

He nodded his head. "Such a battle may likely be the greatest of

the age. How could the Blue Thunder not be a part of it?"

"If the Blue Thunder likes breathing, he might reconsider!" Nabiki

threw back. "You realize that if there is a fight, you could get killed?"

"I am aware of that possibility."

"I don't want to hear about how you're so brave in the face of

death, Tatewaki. I know how crazy and foolish you are. If you go

and get yourself killed I--" She caught herself. She needed to be

reasonable here, this was just her emotions flowing, and if she wasn't

careful she'd say something she might regret.

"It doesn't matter I guess," she finished. "I'll be there anyway to

keep you out of too much trouble."

Kuno tensed at her side.

"I forbid it."

"What?" Nabiki snorted. "You forbid it? Since when do you tell

me what to do?"

He stopped walking and turned her to face him. One hand stayed

at her waist while the other came up to brush gently at her face. Her

eyes were huge and bright in the moonlight, and she nearly held her

breath with his surprisingly gentle show of affection.

"I could not devote myself to the task at hand knowing that you

might be in peril somewhere, Nabiki. Though your spirit burns fiercely

in thy heart, it is not the warrior's spirit. Thou wouldst have no place

in such a battle as will come."

"I'll be okay. I know how to take care of myself," she retorted

calmly. Her heart was racing in any event.

"Nabiki..." Kuno began. He searched for the words as he brushed

at her face again, marveling at how soft and warm it was in the evening

chill. "As I have told you before, I am fond of thee, and could not bear

the thought of even the slightest injury to your lovely and noble person..."

Nabiki put her hand upon his and squeezed it.

"Tatewaki, I told you I'll be fine. I'll just hang back with the

Professor and the rest of the scientists and let you martial arts types

duke it out with Sarophan."

"You do not understand me, Nabiki." He closed his eyes. "Your

death would destroy me..." His hand came away from her waist and

clenched into a fist at the thought.

Her eyes flashed brilliantly with the moonlight on the moisture that

formed there.

"Y-You mean that?" She asked him. "You're not just saying that

to be dramatic?"

Kuno looked away from her.

"You of all who know me should realize that I do not speak lightly

nor in jest."

"Oh Tate-chan... I don't know what to say..."

"Say that you will fly home to Japan in the morning," Kuno told her.

"I have made arrangements with Master Aerandir to see you home. I will be

able to fight as best as I may knowing that you are safe at home."

"I'm coming with you Tate-chan." She silenced his rebuke with a

touch of her finger to his lips. "Don't even argue about it. Just think

about this: who's going to patch you up when this is over? Who

always takes care of you after a fight? Me! I take care of you!

I'm not handing you over to someone else so I can sit 'safe at home'

waiting and worrying about everyone -and especially you! Got it?!"

She poked him in the forehead a few times in the hopes that her

words might actually sink into his thick skull.

He looked at her sternly. She glared back at him with knit brow,

and was about to repeat herself at full volume when he sighed. It was

the standard Tatewaki Kuno Knuckles Under to Nabiki Tendo Sigh.

Victory was hers.

And to the victor go the spoils... She thought with a sudden

smile.

"Okay Tate-chan, this is the part where you are overcome with

joy over my devotion to you, and you take me up into your arms..."

He twitched once, overwhelmed by her as usual, then put his hands

on her shoulders.

"But remember," she added wryly. "I bruise easily."

Aerandir and his party of Ranma, Akane, Hiro, Nabiki, Kuno,

Ryoga, Anazali, and Minhiriath reached the coastal city of Mollendo

by midmorning. It was a long drive down the winding roads from the

mountains, and they were glad to be free again. Especially Aerandir,

who hated any mode of transportation that wasn't walking or sailing.

The three black Mercedes sedans drove back towards the Andes

as they made their way down a narrow waterfront way to the piers.

A large fishing fleet was based here, and the smells and the sounds

were overwhelming. Aerandir of course was right at home.

"Will we all fit on Kelebros?" Nabiki asked him.

Aerandir chuckled. "Not comfortably."

"Then I'm missing something here."

Aerandir placed a hand on her shoulder. "Patience, Nabiki.

You'll see in just a moment."

They rounded a tall fish cannery that sat right on the water before

they saw it. A gorgeous sailing ship; three masted with long daring

lines and a hull painted a snowy white. Men in blue and white striped

shirts and wide brimmed straw hats with yellow ribbons streaming

down the back manned the rails waiting for their Master to return.

"Oh my God, Aerandir!" Nabiki cried in awe.

Akane gave Ranma a squeeze at the thought of riding such a ship.

Ranma rolled his eyes, but then figured that if Akane was happy,

who was he to argue?

Hiro whistled appreciatively. Then he remembered that he got seasick.

Ryoga grunted. He was never much for ships. Especially considering

that they put him so close to the water...

Kuno nodded his head in approval. Here was a vessel even finer

than Kelebros.

"Welcome to the Star of the West!" He cried, gesturing to his ship.

"I own several sailing ships. Kelebros is my favorite, as I usually sail

alone, but in this case I will be traveling with many companions. Those

companions need and deserve a little more room than my humble ketch can

provide."

At the sight of Aerandir, a Master at Arms began bellowing at the

crew, who snapped to attention. A black and white pennant was run

down the mainmast, indicating that the ship's master had returned. A

bosun piped them aboard as they crossed the brow.

"We shall weigh anchor at noon," Aerandir told his Quartermaster.

"See that the ship is rigged for sea."

"Aye aye, Captain."

Ranma and the others watched as the sharply dressed crew took

their luggage to staterooms below. Others climbed the skyladders to

the reach the highest reef stays while still more squared away ropes

and line, and other gear on deck.

"Where did you find the crew?" Nabiki asked Aerandir as they

showed the others to their staterooms.

"Fiddler's Green," Aerandir replied.

Nabiki cocked her head. "Excuse me?"

"Patience Nabiki, all will be revealed."

Nabiki put her hands on her hips. "Does this mean they're all ghosts,

too?"

Aerandir smiled. "You could look at it that way."

"So why can I see them now, and not the ones on Kelebros?"

"The Heart of the World is close. Wonderful things can happen,

my dear Nabiki."

Nabiki watched the crew make preparations to get underway.

They seemed so real, so solid, their voices were a medley of tongues

across the ages. They seemed so full of life! How could they be

dead?

"Do they know they're dead?" She asked.

Aerandir laughed.

"Whoever said they were dead?" He chuckled warmly and patted

her shoulder. "Tell me, Nabiki, what is death?" She gave him a

confused look, and he laughed again. "I like to think that they have

left the world you know but have not yet passed into the next. But if

you must know, yes, they are aware of their passing... My crew are

all volunteers who have signed on with me for this voyage. It is an

honor for them to sail with me, and I am honored to have such a fine

crew of Jack-Tars."

Nabiki nodded silently as she watched them work. They were all

sharply attired in Aerandir's uniform, despite the fact that some of

them were Phoenician sailors from 3000 years ago; others were men

who had fought at Sicily; The English Channel with and against the

Armada; Trafalgar; Jutland; the Coral Sea; and those that rode the

raging Spanish Main. There were even a couple bewildered submariners

from the Wahoo and the Tang, and two first class seamen from U.S.S.

Arizona who wore sailor's white hats tipped rakishly to the sides

of their heads; they were given a line to take turns on in short order.

The Quartermaster appeared before Aerandir. Nabiki hadn't even

seen him before he appeared next to the Maia.

"The ship is ready to get underway, Captain."

Aerandir looked up at the sun, which was at its zenith for this

latitude and time of year.

"Very well," he said crisply. "Weigh anchor; cast us off Mister

Fisher!"

"Weigh anchor; cast off, aye aye!" The Quartermaster replied

heartily. "Weigh anchor! Cast off all lines!" He bellowed. A bosun's

whistle piped the order as well.

Tatewaki Kuno appeared on deck. He was wearing some type of

officer's uniform and looked extremely handsome to Nabiki's eyes.

His sword hung at his side and the gold braid on his shoulders gleamed

in the sunlight. A large plumed hat adorned his head.

"Ah, Blue Thunder!" Aerandir cried happily. "I see you have attired

yourself suitably for your position as mate!"

"I await thy orders, Master Aerandir," he said with a bow.

"On the fo'c'sle please, Blue Thunder. I shall have need of you on

the conn shortly, however."

Kuno nodded and headed forward to the fo'c'sle as the ghost sailors

began to turn the windlass that raised the anchor and others cast off the

mooring lines. They began singing a chanty to make the work go faster,

with one of them standing on the capstan and leading. The Quartermaster

began bellowing for them to put their backs into it, only to be merrily

riposted by the windlass gang to the effect that they didn't really

have backs anymore. At least they were taking the afterlife well.

Ranma and Akane came on deck. Ranma was wearing his red silk

Chinese shirt and black trousers. Akane was wearing a cape over a

winter weight dress, and a big floppy hat. Ranma saw Kuno dressed

as some 18th Century British naval officer and laughed heartily. Kuno

ignored Ranma and strutted forward.

"Be quick about it!" Bellowed the Quartermaster to the crew.

They replied with a bawdy sea chanty that mocked him.

Star of the West was cast off to the sounds of whistle blasts from

the fishing fleet around the harbor. Men cheered for the ship in Spanish

as the crew manned the skysails and unfurled the silvery canvas with

great cracks as the wind filled them. Aerandir brought forth the

necessary following wind, and the ship began to pull away from the

pier. His personal colors rose up the mainmast, the bright blue ensign

standing against the noonday sky.

"Keep a sharp watch Blue Thunder!" Aerandir called to Kuno on

the fo'c'sle.

"Kuno's helping?" Ranma asked Akane worriedly. "We're doomed!"

"He's not a bad sailor under Aerandir," Nabiki replied tartly.

"Oooohhh! Defending him are we?" Ranma taunted. Nabiki's

songbirds chirped laughter from a set of belaying pins around the

mainmast.

"Hush your fianc頤ear sister," Nabiki told Akane. "Before I forget

that I am a lady." She shot the songbirds a look, and they meekly went

silent. But not for long.

"Struck a nerve I see," Ranma guffawed. Right before Akane

elbowed him full force in the ribs. He managed to gasp out, "I'll shut

up now," before nearly falling to his knees. Clearly there were

disadvantages to improving your fianc饧s martial arts abilities, but

he was only now starting to understand this.

Hiro came up on deck with Ryoga steadying him. The two headed

straight for the rail. Hiro was looking quite green about the gills.

One of the sailors began to laugh.

"Oh he's a lovely sight!" he cackled gleefully in his 19th Century

waterfront Hong Kong British accent. "This bein' th' gentle Pacific

ye see. Just imagine him tossin' to an' fro in the Irish Sea!"

"Or rounding the Horn in the middle o' winter!" Another called

from the skysail.

"Soon enough for that, mates!" A third replied with a deep bass

laugh. "Soon enough for that!"

The other sailors began to laugh merrily.

Hiro decided to turn breakfast loose into the sea. This was met with

a great cheer from the ghost sailors. He slumped back over the rail with

Ryoga holding him steady.

"Oh yeah," he said weakly. "I feel much better now..."

Aerandir winked at Nabiki. "They always feel their oats this close

to the Heart of the World. You'll get used to them."

Nabiki laughed. "Actually I kinda like them already, Aerandir."

The sun of the second day at sea was setting over the vast

emptiness of the Pacific Ocean. The sky was ablaze with every color

imaginable; colors Ranma, Akane, and the others had never seen in

sunset on land. Dolphins played in the waters around the Star of the

West as it pitched gently through the waves. They made chittering

noises to Akane, who blushed for no reason she could think of.

"They say we'll have good weather near the Horn," Aerandir told

Ranma, Akane, Nabiki and her songbirds, Ryoga, and a slowly

recovering Hiro. "That is a good omen."

He looked to Akane. "They also seem to want you to join them for

a swim while there is still a warm current in these waters!"

Akane looked downcast to the polished deck.

"I can't swim," she said sheepishly to him. Ranma put his hands on

her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

"You can't swim?" Aerandir cried in amazement.

"Unfortunately she's a lead weight in the water," Nabiki supplied.

"Anything over her head and she sinks like rock," Ranma added.

"She does seem to have a little difficulty in the water," Ryoga

agreed.

"He gets the point!" Akane thundered to them. They jumped back

in surprise.

Aerandir gave this some thought. He clapped his hands together, and

then whistled to the dolphins that jumped and played close to the ship.

They chittered and whistled back to him.

"They say they will be happy to teach you," he told Akane.

"Although they tell me that they can't imagine why anyone as lovely

as yourself can't swim."

"R-R-Really?" Akane asked nervously.

"Hey, you don't have to if you don't want to," Ranma whispered.

Akane shook her head at his words.

"I'd love to!"

"Splendid!" Aerandir laughed. "When our business in the Crown of

Eternity is finished, we shall have plenty of time for such things." He

whistled to the dolphins, and they turned triple somersaults in the air

before disappearing beneath the waves.

"They shall await our return to warmer waters," he said to her and

then went to the conn.

"Oh Ranma! This is great!" Akane cried happily, she went to the

rail for one last hopeful look at the dolphins. They turned on their

backs and waved their flippers to her as they swam away.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked her worriedly.

"Of course! Aerandir wouldn't let anything happen to me."

"I don't think he appreciates the situation."

Akane began to fume. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm worried about you. This ain't like learning at the

pool or nothin'. Do you know how deep the ocean is?"

"Enlighten me, Ranma," Akane asked him brusquely.

"Aerandir said it averaged about 3000 fathoms. That's about 5

kilometers deep, Akane!"

"I'll be fine, Ranma. Have a little faith in me!"

He looked at her. She was adamant. He threw up his hands.

"Fine. Just don't expect me to come diving in after you."

"Ranma!" Ryoga snarled.

"Easy Ryoga," Ranma said evenly. "She knows me better than that."

Akane stuck her tongue out Ranma, who reciprocated playfully.

Ryoga huffed and stepped away to check on Hiro. The man was

looking better after eating saltines and drinking lots of water at

Aerandir's suggestion. The ghost sailors had run out of jokes for

him and had offered a little wisdom of the sea of their own -but first

you had to endure their centuries old sea stories on the subject of

seasickness. Some of them were bad enough to give him a relapse on

the spot.

"How ya feeling?" He asked Hiro.

Hiro gave him a thumbs up. "I think I could keep some soup down."

"Stupid," Ryoga spat. "Why didn't you go with Professor McFogg

if you get so seasick?"

"I really didn't think we'd be sailing to Antarctica. I expected

to fly." He gestured to Ranma and Akane. "Plus I'm here to look after

them."

"Ranma can take care of himself," Ryoga muttered.

"You've missed all the fun, Hibiki. The guys we're against play for

keeps."

Ryoga popped his knuckles. "So do I, Ohata."

"Hey thanks for asking about me," Hiro said quietly. "I didn't mean

any of that stuff back in the ruins, you know."

Ryoga grunted.

"I'm past that now," he said at last. "What matters now is finishing

this. I want to return to Japan."

"How about your curse?"

Ryoga bared a fang for him. "What about it?"

"Didn't Ranma tell you?"

"I haven't really spoken to him since that day."

"Anazali says he can get his curse lifted at the Heart of the World.

I don't see why you couldn't as well."

Ryoga snorted. "I guess I have a reason to talk to Ranma now..."

"Oh man, not another fight!" Hiro pleaded. "Not when I'm sick!"

"I'm going to talk, Ohata. Not fight."

"I've heard that before. I've never heard the whole story between

you two, but I think it's a little ridiculous sometimes that you're

always at each other's throats."

Ryoga popped his knuckles again.

"Maybe. But then you weren't there for any of it."

Hiro sighed. "Sometimes I'm sorry I missed it."

Nabiki joined Aerandir on the conn with Kuno. Her songbirds

were singing for the swordsman, but it was difficult to tell if he

approved. The young looking but centuries deceased sailor at the

helm had a faraway look in his eyes.

Minhiriath was on deck taking a sighting on the rising moon with

an astrolabe. The astronomer announced his observations to Anazali,

who showed the charts to Aerandir. The mariner didn't need the chart

to know where he was, but took a look for decorum's sake.

"We should be nearing the Horn very soon," Aerandir said to

Kuno. "From there we should reach the ice shelf surrounding the

Crown of Eternity by morning. I want you to have the men keep a

careful lookout for icebergs. Just because they have passed on

from this world, there is no need to get complacent."

Kuno nodded solemnly. He was fully immersed into his role

as the mate.

The sunset came with a flash of green light that awed them.

"I wish dear Ukyo were here to see this," Aerandir said quietly.

"I told her about it once while we sailed upon the Aegean."

Nabiki began to sniffle, and turned away to hide it.

"Fear not Nabiki," Aerandir said then. "We shall see Ukyo safe

and sound."

"I hope so Aerandir," she whispered.

A voice rang out from the Crow's Nest.

"Cape Horn bearing three points off the port beam!" The lookout

cried.

"Ship bearing two points off the bow to starboard, hull-down,

on the horizon!" A lookout on the fo'c'sle cried a moment later.

"She flies a black banner."

The ghost crew began to gather around on deck and whistle

a cheerful tune. One of them produced a squeeze-box while another

rosined up the bow for his fiddle. Aerandir slipped his flute out of

his striped tunic and set them to the appropriate score. Nabiki's

songbirds joined in without a moment's hesitation.

Ranma and the others joined them on the afterdeck to see what

the big deal was.

"Welcome to Cape Horn," Aerandir told them. "A treacherous

passage around the tip of Argentina that took many ships to the

bottom, ere the Panama Canal came into being. Because the Heart

of the World is so close, one can often see those vessels that were

lost on this night."

He began to sing, and the ghost crew joined him.

"All around old Cape Horn,

Ships of the line, ships of the morn.

Some of whom wish they'd never been born,

They are the Ghosts of Cape Horn."

The ship closed with them. She flew a black flag, with no other

markings. The lines were slacked and the sails were torn and rent.

She had no crew, sailing mournfully on through the deepening

darkness.

Ranma and the others watched it slip past, close enough to see

the barnacles and seaweed on the hull, and the hear the whistling of

the wind through the holes in the canvas. Akane gasped to see the

rising moon shine faintly through the ship.

"Fal deral da riddle de rum,

With a rim dim diddy

And a rum dum dum.

Sailing away at the break of dawn,

They are the Ghosts of Cape Horn."

Another ghost ship appeared. It flew the flag of Spain. One of

Aerandir's sailors on deck stopped singing and doffed his hat,

bringing it to his cover his heart. It was the vessel of a shipmate,

one who had never come to rest upon the shores of Fiddler's Green.

"See them all in sad repair,

Demons dance, everywhere!

Southern gales, tattered sails,

and none to tell the tale..."

The crews' voices were raised in salute to the ship as it passed.

The ghost ship dipped its tattered colors in answering salute. Voices

were heard as the other crew joined in the song.

"Come all of you rustic old seadogs,

Who follow the bright Southern Cross!

You were rounding the Horn,

In the eye of the storm,

When you lost her one day...

And you read all of your letters, from oceans away.

Then you took them to the bottom of the sea..."

The Spanish galleon passed them. A third and then a fourth ship

appeared. The fourth was a British sail-steamer from the turn of the

century. A strangely luminous brown smoke scudded from her stacks

as she came alongside. The moonrise shone through it as well.

"All around Old Cape Horn

Ships of the line, ships of the morn,

Some of whom wish they'd never been born,

They are the Ghosts of Cape Horn.

Fal deral da riddle de rum,

With a rim dim diddy

And a rum dum dum.

Sailing away at the break of dawn,

They are the Ghosts of Cape Horn..."

More ships appeared and dipped their colors in salute to the Star

of the West. Phantom voices from those ships joined Aerandir's crew,

and the song echoed across the gently rolling sea. Akane put her arm

around Ranma. At first he thought it was because she was scared, but

then realized it was because she was glad to have him alive and close

to her.

"Come all you old seadogs from Devon,

Southampton, Penzance, and Kinsale!

You were caught by the chance,

Of a sailor's last dance,

It was not meant to be...

And you read all your letters, cried anchors aweigh.

Then you took them to the bottom of the sea..."

The last of the ghost ships faded away as the song ended. The

seas were again silent save for the wind and the rush of the water at

the Star of the West's bow. Aerandir's crew drifted away in ones

and twos.

Aerandir stood on the deck with tears streaming quietly from his

eyes. Nabiki looked up at him with concern as the others, including

Anazali and Minhiriath, looked on in surprise. Neither Maia had ever

known the mariner to weep.

"What's the matter, Aerandir?" Nabiki asked him.

He wiped at the tears on his face with a handkerchief.

"This is a beautiful and magical world we live in," he told her

softly. "It is our gift to you... I want you to know that there will

come a time when we shall no longer walk this world; when all

responsibility for it will rest upon your shoulders. I fear that

tomorrow will destroy my people, even if we succeed in stopping my

uncle."

He looked to Ranma, Ryoga, Hiro, and Kuno.

"My uncle and my brother's lives are mine to take," he told them.

"If it comes to that, though I fear it will. Rest yourselves, in the

morning we shall reach the Crown of Eternity. From there our path is

uncertain and our future less so... Prepare yourselves."

He went forward and then below decks to his stateroom without

another word to them.

Ranma took Akane forward to the fo'c'sle to watch the stars. Kuno

stayed on the conn as the Officer of the Deck, and Nabiki and Anazali

stayed with him. Minhiriath took Ryoga aside as Hiro went below to

his own stateroom. The ghost crew faded from sight around them,

only a few that were on watch or those souls that wished to look

upon the night sky for a little while longer remained. A hush fell over

the Star of the West.

"I've never seen Aerandir cry before," Nabiki said to no one in

particular.

"It's because he loves you," Anazali replied to her, the oil on

water sheen of her skin glittering in the moonlight.

Nabiki started. "What?"

"He loves all of you," Anazali continued. "Of all my people, only

Aerandir has stayed the most faithful to our purpose. That is why I

admire him so. But you can be so disappointing to us that it is hard

to love you. Aerandir loves you all the same, but it is because you

can hurt him so with your failures that he takes refuge in the sea. He

weeps for you as much as he does for our people. He weeps

because he isn't sure that you are ready to go on without us."

"You keep talking like it's the end of the world," Nabiki pressed.

"I thought you were going to try and talk this over?"

"There are those who believe Sarophan may listen, but I for one

do not. Aerandir does not believe it either. There will be a terrible

battle tomorrow, Nabiki. I dread it, but I cannot deny it."

She left them then with a wan smile and went below.

Kuno looked away from the conn to Nabiki, but did not say a word.

She returned the look.

"Forget it Tate-chan. I've come this far. If for no other reason

than to make sure Ukyo is all right."

"I ask that you take the utmost care, Nabiki."

She smiled for him.

"I will."

Minhiriath gestured up to the stars for Ryoga.

"I am not sure of the dream that led me to you, Ryoga, and even in

the stars I cannot find the answer. All I know is that you have some

destiny to meet, though I know not for ill or good."

Ryoga looked out across the darkened sea.

"How far away is Japan?"

Minhiriath sighed.

"Very far Ryoga. Or not far at all, if you keep it close to your

heart."

This time Ryoga sighed.

Minhiriath could sense his surface thoughts and smiled.

"She will be waiting for you, my friend. She seems to be a woman

of boundless patience and love where you are concerned."

Ryoga began to blush furiously.

"No sense denying her the place she deserves in your heart, Ryoga,"

Minhiriath continued.

He let Ryoga think about what he said for awhile, and they watched

the stars in companionable silence. Finally Minhiriath patted Ryoga's

back and turned to go.

"Like my fellows, I must retire to my room and prepare for tomorrow.

I in my own small way am a warrior, and must marshal my strength. I

suggest you try to get some sleep where you can."

Ryoga nodded and the Maia left him to stand by the rail.

Ranma and Akane stood on the prow. Ranma had his arm around

her waist. She lay her head against his arm. He wore his red sable

cloak and spread it over Akane's shoulders to keep the cold sea

wind at bay. Though it was June, this was the southern hemisphere,

and it was winter here.

"This is it," he told her.

"We'll be fine," she replied. She sensed that he wanted to say

something more, but for the moment she was content to let him bring

up the subject on his own.

"I ain't worried."

"You're just saying that so I won't get worried," she sighed. "It's

okay to be a little worried, Ranma. I want you to know that I believe

in you... I believe in us."

He tugged her a little closer to him.

"It's crazy," he said to her.

"What is?"

"You and me. Working as a team. Our folks have been trying to

do that now for how long?"

Akane laughed sweetly.

"I see your point, Ranma. It is kind of crazy."

"Yeah, but a good kinda crazy."

"Yeah..." Her voice drifted away dreamily. "You make me very

happy, Ranma."

"Oh yeah?"

"As if you even have to ask," she said dryly. She brushed his

pigtail over his shoulder thoughtfully.

A sudden chill settled over her, and it was not the cold sea air.

"I don't want to worry about tomorrow, but I can't help thinking about

it."

"We've been training together. And you've gotten a lot faster,

Akane. A lot better. I think the two of us can take care of anyone

that comes along. All we have to do is blast that damn prism to bits

and we can go home."

"Home..."

"Yeah, home. It'll be good to go home." He said quietly. "I don't

think I'm as big on all this traveling as you are."

"I couldn't tell," she replied with a touch of sarcasm.

"You know what?"

She looked up into his eyes.

"What?" She asked him.

"I don't think I tell you how much I love you as often as I should."

Akane put her arms around his neck.

"That's okay Ranma. I know how you feel." She kissed him lightly

upon the cheek. "But you can tell me anytime you like!"

A silence fell between them. Akane was used to it, such silences

were no longer the uncomfortable spans they once were. Ranma

tended to open up after a pause anyway. She wasn't disappointed.

He reached over and brushed at her cheek without preamble.

"The only thing bothering me is Ukyo."

"You mean if we have to fight her like we did in the vision?"

Ranma shook his head. "If it was just a fight, I think it would be

easier to handle. I don't think the vision we had was, um, well, the

way it's going to be."

"You mean what we saw wasn't literal?" She grinned at him.

Ranma ignored her grin. "I get the feelin' these guys in the Heart

of the World like using a lot of symbols when they talk to people.

Don't ask me what Ukyo fighting us is supposed to symbolize."

Akane gave this some thought.

"Maybe the fight wasn't symbolic, but the way we beat her was."

Ranma screwed up his face in thought. He had to admit that Akane

was the cerebral half of their fighting duet. He was the muscle.

"What do you mean?"

"How did we beat her? We took each other's hands and worked

together -as one. What's that supposed to mean?"

"That we're supposed to work together. I thought that's what these

guys in the Heart of the World wanted all along."

"But why?"

"You're the one with all the answers," he replied.

She resisted the urge to slug him. "Even though you don't use it

very often, you do have a brain of your own, you know."

He narrowed his eyes at her. She wrinkled her nose at him in

retaliation. His expression softened, and she giggled at his weakness.

He tried to ignore her and actually put some thought into his question.

She stopped when she realized he was taking her advice, so as not to

distract him.

"Maybe the fight with her is a kinda symbol. Maybe it's not an

actual fight, but some other kinda struggle," He said at length.

"Like what?"

"I dunno. What kind of struggle could we possibly have with Ukyo?

Over what, even? We're all friends, right?"

Akane nodded her head slowly. "Ukyo and I get along just fine...

Except where you're concerned that is," she added quietly.

"She knows how I feel about you."

"That might not change the way she feels about you, deep inside."

Ranma took her face in his hands. "You're the one I love, Akane.

You're the one I want to marry. If that's all this is about, then we've

already won the battle."

As he moved close to kiss her, Akane hoped silently that he was

right.

Chapter Three

Moskva stood at anchor just beyond the vast expanse of whiteness

against the dim sky that was the winter limits of the Ross Ice Shelf.

The nuclear powered icebreaker Arktika continued to crush a path

through the sea ice as the amphibious ships followed in its wake. The

destroyers and frigates made lazy patrols around the carrier, picking

their way carefully through the icebergs. The guided missile cruiser

Kirov guarded the entrance to their path through the ice floes from

the open sea. Prowling at a safe depth below them were an Akula and a

Victor III. There was the possibility that an American submarine was

following the fleet, and the two Russian subs cruised at low speeds

to avoid detection.

The tarps were clear of the helicopters, and the whine of turbines

and the chop of rotor blades filled the bitter air. Men in heavy arctic

camouflage fatigues carried weapons subdued with strips of white

cloth and fell into formations by squads. Sailors and aircrewmen

darted to and fro on deck making final checks. Running lights on

helicopters blinked red and green in a sky that was unending twilight.

Ivan Tarchenko shivered with a mixture of cold and pride. He

had assembled quite a force to seize the Heart of the World. His

team was assembling on the after elevator. Between the dozen men

was a large pyramid whose whiteness was lost amid so much ice and

flurrying snow. Their prism sat in a heavy gauge sling, it was too big

and massive to fit within a helicopter.

Fyodor's men gathered around him close by. They would fly in

with the scout helicopters and set up the landing zones. Within the

ring of rock that was Mount Erebus and Mount Terror there would

be plenty of room for the troop carrying helicopters to get in and out.

Tarchenko knew Casimir's model worked as soon as he received

the satellite imagery photos. There, in the middle of winter and with

no appreciable sun, was a garden of incredible fecundity. It had

appeared overnight just yesterday. That kind of miracle seemed to

be stock in trade for the Heart of the World.

He would be accompanying the research and seizure teams. How

could I not go? He told himself. If it worked, those old power

grubbers sitting in Moscow were going to be in for a surprise.

Power was not something you shared.

"How we doin' D-Day?" Durango asked his copilot.

D-Day looked out of the frosty canopy to the wing.

"We're holding up all right," he replied.

"As long as we keep cycling the control surfaces, we shouldn't

have a problem there. I'm just worried about icing on the wings

themselves."

"It's not bad. Keep us out of the white stuff."

"I can a feel a little on the other wing whenever I put on a

little left yaw."

"We could throttle up on the engine. That might help keep from

stalling the wing in a turn."

Professor McFogg came up to the flight deck wearing a heavy

fur-lined parka.

"How much further?" He asked them.

"About thirty minutes," Durango replied. "We talked to McMurdo

Station not long ago, and reception was bad. Either there's bad

weather close by, or something's lousing up the radio. Could be

your little disturbances."

"I don't think it's bad weather," D-Day mumbled. "Doppler's

looking good; a little snowfall is about it. McMurdo said it was calm

there, too."

McFogg nodded his head. The younger members of his research

team were grousing about the cold and discomfort of flying in Bettie's

Dare. He liked the old Catalina himself. The thrum of the props, and

the creaking and vibration reminded him of his paratrooper days over

Holland. A time when he and a handful of men under a chap named

Frost had held off two SS Panzer divisions at a certain bridge in a

town called Arnhem. He even brought his weathered red beret with

the silver pegasus over a maroon flash with him for the trip.

Bettie's Dare cruised on through the dark winter skies. Below them

the ice glowed with the light of the moon as it sunk below the horizon.

There were dark patches too, the frigid Ross Sea.

"I think that's it," Durango said, pointing to a pair of dark

peaks in the distance.

D-Day consulted the GPS display and compared it to his chart.

"Sure is, man."

McFogg and Ferguson watched the two mountains as they flew

towards them. A glow of light filtered up from the ring of dark basalt,

rising into the sky and illuminating banks of high altitude clouds.

Bettie's Dare flew on.

"We're about five minutes away now. You got any particular place

you want to set down?" Durango asked McFogg. "The chart says it's

nice and level in that valley, but who knows? The chart didn't say

anything about the place glowing from ten miles away, either."

"We'll see when you get us in closer," McFogg replied.

Ferguson was busying himself with a Kirlian. "I'm already reading

increased activity. This is going to be amazing even without the Maia

and their conflict." He thought about his words. "How am I going to

explain that one in my paper?"

"You'll think of something," Katy Price said coolly from the ladder.

"The kids are getting restless," she added for the pilots. "How much

longer do we have to stay up here in this rattle trap?"

"I heard that!" Durango yelled. "Just for that..." He reached into

his bomber jacket and pulled out one of his few Partagas cigars. He

lit up on the fly as D-Day took the control yoke. Heavy aromatic

smoke billowed from his mouth, which he knew Katy Price hated.

It began to permeate the cabin. Ferguson didn't smoke, but liked the

smell of good cigars. The Professor of course was an old pipe smoker

and so felt right at home. Katy began to make that irritated coughing

noise that militant nonsmokers make when they're trying to get the

attention of an offender to their way of life.

Durango took in a huge Bogart drag and purposefully blew it out in

her direction.

She fled at once.

"Coming up on this 'Crown of Eternity,'" Durango announced.

About that point was when the GPS and pulse Doppler weather

radar systems crashed, the compass began to spiral crazily on the

console, and the engines died with gasps. The silence was sudden

and oppressive.

"What the hell?" Durango cried. D-Day was shoving Ferguson

out of the way as he jumped out of his seat to reach the Engineer's

station.

"Get below and strap yourselves in!" D-Day bellowed at the

scientists. Then to Durango. "We lost both engines, but I can't tell

why. No fire lights, no indications of oil or fuel system failure."

Durango feathered the props. To keep them loaded would stop

them, and he wasn't ready for a restart in this freezing weather with

the props not moving. The Professor remained in the cockpit as

Ferguson and Katy went below.

"Restart procedures!" He cried. His free hand flew across the

console as he set his mixture, choke, and throttle settings for restart.

"Ready on one!" D-Day called.

"Contact!" Durango yelled. "Come on baby, turn over!"

Number One engine failed to start. Bettie's Dare began to sink

as it lost airspeed. Durango found himself forced to put the Catalina

into a shallow dive for speed just to keep from completely stalling

out and dropping straight down from lack of lift.

"Shit!"

"I'm not getting any indications from the starting motor! Voltage

is going crazy, but I'm not reading any grounds on the system!"

D-Day cried as he checked a series of circuit breakers. "Try

Number Two!"

"Contact!"

Nothing.

"Shit!" The two pilots chorused.

The Crown of Eternity loomed before them.

"Okay," Durango said with sudden unnerving calm. "We're gonna

try one more time. Then we're gonna belly land. How're the hydraulics

holding up?"

"Pressure's falling slowly in the accumulator, and we don't have

any power to the pump."

"Get ready to hand pump the landing gear down. If anything the

gear'll help eat up the energy of impact."

"How well can you glide without power?" McFogg asked them.

Durango hand cranked the flaps to full and fought to hold the

Catalina in the air. His altitude for speed trade-off was running out

of one particularly important commodity -altitude. "With all the ice

we have built up, and no power, Bettie's got all the aerodynamics

of a poorly thrown brick. Get below, Professor."

McFogg complied. His pilots had enough trouble without having

to answer any more questions. There was already muted panic

coming from the rest of the team in the cabin.

"Ready on One!"

Durango tried to start the engine. It coughed and spit, but didn't

turn over. He looked quickly for a spot on the ice for his belly landing,

as his free hand moved to the controls for Number Two engine.

They were dropping to eighteen hundred feet and still falling with

just enough speed to keep from stalling both wings.

"Come on girl... Don't do this to me... Come on baby, put out for

me just one more time."

"Ready on Two!"

"Contact!"

Durango jerked at the starter. Number Two coughed, wheezed, and

hummed, but wouldn't turn over.

"BITCH!!!" He thundered to the plane. His fist slammed down on

the console as he continued to jerk at the starter.

Number Two engine roared to life defiantly. Fire shot from the

exhaust header with a loud bang. Durango bit the tip right off his cigar

in surprise.

"She likes the abuse!" He crowed, and throttled up Number 2 all

the way. Bettie's Dare began to claw its way into the air again. He got

Number 1 started with no effort the third time.

"Let's get the hell over that ridge and set her down before we lose

the engines again," Durango announced. "We'll figure out what happened

once we're on the ground."

They made a circling climb and brought the Catalina over the black

knife-edged ridge line that was the northern side of the Crown of

Eternity. They cleared the ridge and entered the golden glow of light

that sparkled below them. They saw the lush garden and the grassy

plains on the south side of the valley between the two mountains.

"Looking pretty good," D-Day said, pointing.

"I was thinking the same thing," Durango replied. He called over

his shoulder. "Okay, knock on wood, but I think our troubles are

over! Found us a nice grassy meadow to land on. Stay in your seats

and keep your tray tables in the fully upright position until the

aircraft comes to a complete stop."

Bettie's Dare flared out over the grassy meadow for a smooth and

easy landing. Durango feathered the props and let them coast down

gently. D-Day opened the dorsal hatch and poked his head out.

Warm air greeted him, there was green almost everywhere, and

brightly colored flowers where there was not.

"You sure we aren't dead?" He asked Durango.

"Positive," Durango answered. "I've got a woody you wouldn't

believe."

"Then we must be in Oz."

His eyes searched for a yellow brick road in spite of himself.

"You tell me," the pilot replied, scrambling for his fallen cigar.

"You're the navigator. This could be the Twilight Zone for all I

know." He found his cigar, then he pocketed his trusty M1911A1

pistol in his jacket.

Ferguson and the Professor stepped out of the side hatch. Doctor

Casimir and Katy were close behind. The rest of the team, mostly

undergraduates and a few post-grads from Cambridge, followed

after with the gear. Soft cries and awed curses drifted across the

warm golden air.

Casimir was nearly in tears. He put his hand on McFogg's shoulder.

" This is what our fathers saw. Perhaps more, as they never

mentioned such a garden as this. "

A voice greeted them from a line of trees a few dozen yards

distant.

"Welcome Professor McFogg, Doctor Casimir, and company!"

They watched as a tall bearded man with silvery skin and

glittering silver eyes raised his hand in greeting and started towards

them. A young Japanese woman wearing a short purple and black dress and

white tights was at his side. A white bow adorned her long mane of

lustrous dark brown hair. She was carrying the biggest spatula either

of them had ever seen. It was like an enormous pizza spat.

"How long has it been, Professor, close to fifty years since last

we met?" The silver skinned man asked him.

McFogg recognized the man. India. 1947.

" Forty-nine, " he replied.

"I am glad you were able to make yourself present for this,"

Sarophan said warmly. "Your father would be proud."

They noticed the other men and women that came out of the

wooded areas around the meadow. They were armed with swords

and spears that flashed with spectral flames. They were Maia, but

obviously allied with Sarophan.

"You are free to observe and take whatever scientific data you

wish," Sarophan continued. "But I ask for your own safety that you

stay well clear of us."

Star of the West lay at anchor near the great sheet of glacial ice

that was the Ross Ice Shelf. The ghost crew scuttled about readying the

ship's skyskiff; a Maia flying boat with sails above and below the hull.

There were precious few of them left in the world; each crafted in the

days when Maianar sat atop the waves rather than below.

Aerandir looked over the companions as they stepped aboard the

skiff that floated above the icy seas. They were dressed in warm

cloaks with hoods, and underneath they wore shirts or hauberks of

mail so finely woven that they were like shimmering silk. The gorgeous

armor was a gift from him to each of them.

At first Ranma had balked at the thought of wearing armor, then

he saw how light and comfortable the hauberks were. Now he wore

one beneath a loose fitting tunic and trousers made of bright red satin

and embroidered in gold and black with an Asian style dragon. Akane

wore a mail shirt under a short dress of matching material and also

embroidered with a dragon as well as brightly colored flowers. When

they stood next to each other, it seemed as if each dragon was

wriggling in harmony with the other's movements. When they stood

apart, each dragon lay still upon the garment. Aerandir explained that

they were gift from Nimatar, and were made the day after the Conclave

for them.

Ryoga Hibiki wore his hauberk under a brilliant green tunic and

black trousers. Tiny stars glittered in their constellations on his

tunic, a gift from Minhiriath, who wore similar garb and carried a long

spear with a broad leaf shaped head. Ryoga's face was unreadable,

though doubtless he was thinking about his return to Japan.

Tatewaki Kuno wore his mail hauberk underneath a samurai's

fighting kimono made of an iridescent dark blue material that felt like

silk under an electric current to the touch. It was another gift from

Nimatar. His sword was held loosely in his hand. His face was grim

and his eyes burned with a dark intensity.

Nabiki had her songbirds nestle underneath her hood. They

absolutely refused to stay behind, no matter how insistent she or

even Aerandir had been with them. Their feathers were a little ticklish

on her neck as they huddled together and against her. She wore a mail

shirt under a golden silk blouse and tight fitting red trousers made of

velvet and cut high on her waist, nearly reaching her midriff. Her waist

was bound with a black silk sash. Her garments had that same

stimulating electric feel about them that Kuno's had.

Hiro Ohata wore a white tunic and black trousers. A dark green

sash bound his waist, and he tucked spare magazines for his two Sigs

within. A knight upon a rampant charger was embroidered in a

matching dark green thread upon his back. He carried his trusty

H&K G-3 rifle in hand, and his extra magazines were carried in a

black velvet pouch slung over his shoulder.

Anazali wore a long dress that glowed like mother of pearl

against the light of the ship's lanterns. She carried a long spear in

her hand and a sword at her side. She let her hair down, spilling over

her shoulders and down to the small of her back in waves.

Aerandir himself wore a black tunic over white trousers, and a

burgundy sash held his gracefully waved flamberg鮠His pale hair was

tied into its usual ponytail with a burgundy ribbon. His expression was

buoyant as they stepped aboard the skiff. Within himself however he

was the gravest of them all.

At a verbal prompt the skyskiff's sails billowed open and the sleek

craft began to fly swiftly across the choppy grey seas towards the ice

shelf. They could see the distant black peaks of Mounts Terror and

Erebus against the soft golden glow that rose up into heaven from the

Crown of Eternity. The air was incredibly cold and bitter, without the

cloaks Aerandir had given them it would have been unendurable.

"I'm returning to my birthplace," Anazali whispered. "When was the

last time the Heart of the World rose here?" She asked Aerandir.

"A little over three hundred years ago," he replied.

"It doesn't seem like such a long time."

"For me it isn't."

Akane clasped Ranma's hand tight in hers as they huddled together.

Their lovemaking last night had carried with it a sense of desperation,

as if only in the intimacy of their joining could their hidden fears and

misgivings could find voice.

The first of the helicopters rose from Moskva and tipped into the

wind carrying Fyodor and his men. Other helicopters took off carrying

the pathfinders. As helos lifted clear, more were brought up on deck

with the elevators. The main body of the force was preparing to move

out. Tarchenko found himself with the research team. The wounded

Doctor Pulatski and his scientists readied gear while Toschev and his

psionics prepared themselves from within. His helo, a massive Mi-24

Hind-E stripped of most of its guns to carry more cargo, was carrying

their prism beneath it.

LCACs disembarked from the amphibious ships carrying the

majority of their force. The hovercrafts glided neatly over the ice

below them. There were five hundred men down there. They were

prepared to take and hold the Crown of Eternity until reinforcements

arrived.

The choppers started across the vast sheet of glacial ice headed

towards Ross Island. They could see the golden glow on the horizon

unmoving like a frozen sunrise. Tarchenko smiled and licked his lips

in anticipation.

"Look my friends," Aerandir said to them. "We have arrived."

The Crown of Eternity lay before them, a vast ring of black rock

capped with ice and snow along the tops of the ridges. Mount Erebus

probed the grey sky to one side, and to the opposite side rose it's

twin, Mount Terror. Within the crown lay a lush and verdant garden,

bright and lively against the stark dread of the Crown. They could

feel the warm air rising from the vast garden below, dispelling the

freezing wind that had torn at them before.

Other skyskiffs and more fantastical flying machines were already

present in the valley below or descending down the steep sides of the

Crown. They could see pennants and banners fluttering gently from

tents and pavilions in two distinct camps. The PBY-5A Catalina better

known as Bettie's Dare could also be seen on the far side of the valley.

They could feel the warm and tingling wind. The place was filled

with power. Ranma had never felt anything like it. It was all around

them, more vast than any of the events and yet so distant it was almost

an abstract. He squeezed Akane's hand, and she whispered to him

that she loved him.

"It seems very peaceful," Nabiki observed.

"This is sort of weird," Ranma muttered. "I expected a fight from

the beginning."

"The Heart of the World shall rise and stay for about an hour

before beginning its descent," Minhiriath explained. "That time shall

be used for our expectant mothers to give birth to their children, for

reaching out with ourselves to the rest of the universe in prayer, and

for the creation of wondrous things. In that time we shall also attempt

to parley with Sarophan."

"We shall fight only when my uncle attempts to use his prism,"

Aerandir declared. "I will give the signal."

The skyskiff descended down the face of the cliffs and settled

down upon a small knoll near Nimatar's camp. The Maia and his

retainers greeted them warmly, but it was plain that there was much

apprehension in the air. The party removed their cloaks and set

them aside in the skyskiff while Aerandir spoke to Nimatar.

"Sarophan refuses to speak to us until the gathering," Nimatar

told Aerandir. "I think that bodes ill for a peaceful resolution."

"We must leave this to the peacemakers for now, Nimatar," the

mariner replied. "I am girded for war, and my uncle likely considers

me to have betrayed him. I cannot speak to him lest it be over the

edge of my sword."

"I understand. I see Ranma, Akane and their bold companions

are ready to act."

"They shall, when the time comes."

Nabiki found the Professor and the other scientists setting up

their sensor networks and trying to establish satellite communications

with London. Thus far they had been woefully unsuccessful. Ferguson

scrambled around setting up his white boxes as Clay made Kirlian

sweeps. Katy and Doctor Casimir supervised the set up of the data

recording and A/V equipment. Sarophan had left them alone to do

their work.

When asked, they confirmed that Ukyo was with the Maia as well.

Nabiki passed this on to Ranma immediately.

"I'm going to go find her," he declared.

"Not without me you're not," Akane added.

"Then let's go," he said grimly.

"Wait you guys!" Nabiki cried. "I'm going too. And shouldn't you

tell someone first that you're going?"

"We have plenty of time before this gathering or whatever. Nothing

is going to happen before then anyway. Besides, it'll be easier if I can

talk to Ukyo before the fighting starts."

Nabiki had to agree on that last point, but she still had misgivings

about just leaving like that. She looked around for Kuno or Hiro or

even Ryoga, but they were elsewhere in the camp. She didn't know

any of the Maia around, and so she settled for joining her sister and

Ranma as they started across the center of the Crown of Eternity

towards Sarophan's camp.

They passed through a copse of trees. They saw Ukyo standing

there near the edge of the clearing beyond. If she noticed them she

gave no sign. Ranma didn't wait for the other two, and started off

at a full run towards Ukyo.

"Ucchan!" He cried.

Ukyo looked over to him and her eyes lit up with joy.

"Ranma! Wait up!" Akane protested. "We should be together!"

Ranma could no longer hear her. As he ran towards Ukyo, and

she towards him, the trees faded away to be replaced by houses

and a narrow street. The copse became Nerima. His memories

drifted away as the trees faded, and now his face burned with a

red slap mark across his cheek. Courtesy of the hopelessly uncute

tomboy Akane Tendo, who had just become his very reluctant

fianc饮

"Ucchan! Is that you? I don't believe it!"

Ukyo nodded slowly.

"Hi Ranchan," she said to him. There was a little wariness in her

voice, but otherwise she looked just as happy to see him as he was

to see her.

There was something wrong here, but Ranma couldn't quite put

his finger on it. He was overjoyed to see his old friend Ukyo, at least

now he had a friend in the new neighborhood his stupid father had

taken them to.

"How did you get here? Do you live here now? This is great!" He

asked excitedly as he stopped short in front of her. He looked her

over in her dress. She smiled for him warmly.

"Hey!?" He cried. "What's with the dress?"

"I'm a girl, stupid!" She cried indignantly. "Girls do wear

dresses upon occasion, you know."

Ranma's head spun in circles.

Ucchan is a girl...?

"Since when did this happen?" He stammered. He thought of his

recent curse, also courtesy of his damn idiot of a father. "You didn't

go to China by any chance, did you?"

She flushed red; half embarrassed, and half upset with him.

"I've always been a girl, Ranchan! You mean to tell me that

you never noticed?"

Ranma flushed red as well.

"Uh... Nope... I, ah, I always thought you were a boy..." He

looked down at the ground. "I don't know what to say..."

She wanted to smash his head in for that. But he was so cute,

and she found her heart fluttering in his presence. She couldn't

believe it, but she knew she was falling in love with him right then

and there. She patted his head and then lifted his chin up to her.

His face flushed even hotter at her touch. Her skin was so soft

and sweet smelling.

"I guess this explains a lot of things..." She said to him. "Like

why you ran away and left me."

Ranma tried to recall what she was talking about. All he

remembered about Ukyo was all the fun they used to have together.

The playful sparring, the okonomiyaki that always followed his

victory -to the point that Ucchan would even have one waiting

for him, complete with goofy face drawn in sauce, the walks they'd

take, and the secrets that he'd share with him. (Her... he reminded

himself.) Anyway, such secrets as a couple of little kids can have.

Nowhere did he remember running off and leaving him. Her... he

again reminded himself. Looking at her in that short dress left no room

for mistake as to her gender.

"I'm sorry Ucchan, I don't remember what you're talking about."

She hissed under her breath.

"I shouldn't blame you for it," she said at length. "It's your

father that was responsible."

"That figures!" Ranma snapped. "That stupid asshole has made

my life a living hell." He looked at her softly. "So what did he do this

time?"

"He promised my father that you and I would get married some

day," she replied evenly.

Ranma's head started to spin again at the thought of marrying Ukyo,

especially because she was so cute! He couldn't help but stare at her

in this regard. Then he remembered his current predicament.

"Where have I heard that before...?" He asked himself bitterly.

"Do you know that he promised me to some other guy's daughters?"

Ukyo looked crestfallen. "You mean you're engaged to someone

else, as well as me?"

"Yeah," Ranma replied. There was absolutely no joy in his voice.

"I'm engaged to this violent sexless tomboy. I can't stand her."

Akane and Nabiki were falling further and further behind Ranma.

He didn't answer their cries for him to stop. As he stepped past a tree,

he disappeared. It was like he was never there. They reached the tree

and looked around. There was no sign of him. He didn't answer their

repeated calls to him. He was gone.

"Oh I knew we shouldn't have gone without telling someone,"

Nabiki said with clenched teeth. "I think we're in a lot of trouble."

Akane was speechless. Ranma was gone. Her eyes began to dew.

She felt like she had failed him somehow. But before she could do or

say anything she heard a dreadfully familiar voice.

"Ah, there she is..."

They turned to see Palandir standing close by. His sword flashed

with white flames along the blade. Her heart shot up into her throat.

Nabiki hadn't seen the man before, but his resemblance to Aerandir

was strong enough for her to make the connection.

"Rest easy m'ladies," Palandir soothed. "Go back to camp."

"What have you done with Ranma!" Akane cried.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Palandir replied

calmly.

"Don't lie to me!" Akane thundered back. Nabiki tugged at her

arm to get her to back down.

"Akane, let's get back to camp and tell Aerandir. We don't stand

a chance against this guy," Nabiki hissed to her little sister.

"Not until I get Ranma back!"

Palandir watched them with a smug look of innocence on his face.

"Akane, you aren't helping him by doing this," Nabiki hissed

sternly. "Now we've got to hurry back and find Aerandir. Please, Akane.

This guy could kill us without breaking a sweat."

Akane glared at him fiercely, but knew her sister was right. She

hated it, because it felt like she was abandoning Ranma, and that was

something she would never do. She also knew that there was no way

they could defeat the Maia on their own.

"You're going to regret this," she told him. She started back to

Nimatar's camp with Nabiki leading the way.

The Russian helicopters made their way through the frigid air

towards the Crown of Eternity. As they approached, Tarchenko

noticed that the radio chatter between choppers began to break up

in blasts of static and harsh warbling. The pilots began to adjust their

sets to no effect.

"What is happening?" He asked them.

They shook their heads. "There is some kind of interference," one of

them said. He pointed to the golden glow of the Crown of Eternity.

"Perhaps it has something to do with that." The pilot had never seen

anything like it before, and was more than a little apprehensive.

The radio crackled again. It was Fyodor and the scout helicopters.

They were close to the rim of the Crown now, and were reconnoitering

the interior with binoculars. After several attempts, they finally

conveyed their message in its entirety.

"We are arriving late," Fyodor told him. "There are already many

people present. I can see a kind of seaplane and many tents below. I

estimate several hundred people. I also see another prism down there."

Tarchenko demanded that he repeat that last part.

"There is another prism down there. It is just like our own."

This was unthinkable! Did that old fool Casimir know all along

about the prism, and did he then share that knowledge with McFogg,

or did the Professor already know and kept it a secret from everyone?

He didn't have time for further reflection, as the helicopter's

engines died. Other helicopters began losing their engines. Radios

blared out static, compasses spun crazily, watches stopped. Helos

began falling out of the sky.

"What's happening?!" He demanded.

"We've lost our engines!" The copilot cried. "We can't restart

them, we'll have to autorotate to the ground or we'll be killed! Hold

on tight to something, sir!"

Tarchenko's heart nearly stopped as the helicopter began it's

rapid descent straight down. The pilot adjusted his torque and blade

pitch to use the remaining rotational energy of the blades to break

his fall. Other helicopters began doing the same as their engines died.

They came down hard, but not enough to cause serious injury. A few

helicopters crashed, and one even exploded a few hundred meters away.

The rest autorotated safely and set down on the glacial ice plain just

short of the Crown of Eternity.

Their prism wasn't as fortunate. It was smashed in the impact. It

was useless. Tarchenko couldn't believe the disaster that had been

heaped upon him. Pulatski began babbling about the magnitude of the

electromagnetic disturbance that could have killed all of the engines

of the helicopters and stopped wristwatches dead. Tarchenko cut him

off with a look that would have frozen helium plasma.

The LCACs arrived with the rest of the force. This was to be their

staging area for the helicopters that were supposed to shuttle them over

the ridge of the Crown. Without the helicopters the mission looked

doomed to failure.

As the soldiers gathered up and a head count was taken, Fyodor

and his team caught up with Tarchenko. Their helicopter had crashed

at the very base of the Crown, and it had taken them an hour to return.

Tarchenko had written them off as lost.

"We have found a pathway up the ridge and into the valley below,"

Fyodor informed him. "We can reach the valley in an hour, less if we

double time."

Tarchenko nodded.

"You are certain there was another prism down there?"

"I saw it with my own eyes," Fyodor replied.

"We don't have any choice then," Tarchenko said at length. He

pointed to the smashed prism.

"Form the men up in their squads and let's move out!" He called to

his officers. "Double time!"

Fyodor's squad lead the way as the Russian troops began their

quicktime march across the ice and snow to the Crown of Eternity.

Tarchenko's face was a grim mask of resolve.

Nothing will stop me from getting that prism. Nothing.

Chapter Four

The gathering was about to begin by the time Akane and Nabiki

returned to Nimatar's camp. Nimatar and the others were of course

looking for them as well. When they didn't see Ranma with them, the

Maiar began to look very concerned. All of the warriors present

began to shift uncomfortably and murmur amongst themselves.

"He's gone!" Akane cried. "He disappeared right in front of us!"

"This is my uncle's doing," Aerandir spat. "He realizes the danger

Ranma and Akane present, and he also understands that their power

to stop him comes from acting together. Now he has separated them."

"What can we do?" Hiro asked. He brought up his rifle. "I'll do

whatever it takes."

Aerandir looked at him. "Hiro, I want you to stay close to Akane.

Sarophan might change his mind about letting her be."

"What about me!?" Ryoga protested. "I'll rip this guy Sarophan's

head off if he comes close to Akane, I swear to you!"

"No Ryoga, I need your strength close at hand," Aerandir replied.

He looked to Kuno. "Your steel as well, Blue Thunder."

Nimatar raised his finger. "It is possible Sarophan is concealing

Ranma somehow, but once the Heart of the World rises, Akane

should be able to find him."

"How?" She pleaded.

"Follow your heart of course," Nimatar replied.

"The red strings..." Anazali said.

"Precisely," Nimatar confirmed.

Akane looked at herself. "I can't see anything!" She protested.

"You will soon enough," Nimatar told her. "Ranma needs your

strength, Akane. Have faith in yourself, and in your love for him,

and you will not fail."

"I shall accompany Akane, if I may," Minhiriath said at length to

Aerandir and Nimatar. "My talents as a stargazer are of little import

now."

"Very well," Aerandir assented. He looked to Anazali. "Anazali,

I wish for you be at my side."

She nodded once and brought her spear up in salute.

A horn began to sound, the note coinciding with the tingling

feeling that suddenly flooded through every Maia in the Crown. The

Heart of the World was close. It was time to gather as they had every

88 years for millennia.

"We must go now. Prepare yourselves," Aerandir told his warriors.

There were fifty of them plus the two that were Kuno and Ryoga. "Let

us hope the peacemakers will make our presence unnecessary this day."

Minhiriath held Akane and Hiro back as the others went to the center

of the Crown. Nabiki joined Professor McFogg and the others along

a low hill that overlooked the center. Hopefully they would be far

enough out of the way if any fireworks started.

Nabiki was visibly heartsick, and not even her songbirds could

cheer her. They felt the Heart of the World coming, and began to

sing even more joyously for her. She tried to smile for them, for she

loved them dearly, but it was halfhearted at best. Ranma was missing.

Akane was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Ukyo had either

betrayed them or was the unwitting pawn of Sarophan. Tatewaki

Kuno was about to enter a battle even the Maiar dreaded to fight. It

was just too many disasters at once.

Professor McFogg and the others were dismayed by the news of

Ranma's disappearance. Even buoyant Ferguson, who was collecting

more data before the Heart of the World had even risen than he had in

all those brief moments during previous events. Durango and D-Day

couldn't find anything wrong with their Catalina, and since they had

nothing better to do, decided to go searching for Ranma.

The Maiar began to assemble around the center of the Crown of

Eternity. The white pyramid that was the prism stood in the very nexus

where the Heart of the World would rise. It was guarded by a dozen

Maia with glittering spears. Sarophan stood away from it, flanked by a

few of his trusted advisers. Palandir was nowhere to be found.

Ryoga could feel the tension in the air between the Maiar. It was

an unspoken hostility. Though no weapons flashed with ethereal flames,

he knew that was a circumstance that could be provided for on a second's

notice.

What could have happened to Ranma? He thought sullenly.

He felt the tingle of the Heart of the World's approach distantly,

stirring the magical energies within him that made up his curse. He

knew that in this place at the right time he could force those energies

out of his body to rejoin the Heart of the World. Aerandir and

Minhiriath had both been certain of this when he asked them. His

curse would end today.

Tatewaki Kuno stood close to Ryoga and by Aerandir's side. His

katana was sheathed, though he held the weapon low in his hand for

readiness. He meditated upon those who stood across from him,

studying them, searching for some hint of their strength and skill. His

meditation was interrupted by the occasional thought of concern for

Nabiki, and was only assuaged when he looked over his shoulder to

the hill where she stood. He could see the gold of her blouse glitter

in the soft light that permeated the very air of the place. He smiled

at the choice of color Nimatar had selected for her garment. Gold

suited her well.

He was uncertain of how he should proceed with her. Clearly she

was interested in him in more ways than as a source of income, but

what of the Pig-Tailed Girl? Would she not be shattered if he should

choose to love Nabiki? He could not love them both, Nabiki would

only allow him to love her above all else.

He thought of her again. The way they had embraced that night

before leaving Peru. It was nothing like what he thought love and

affection should be. No trumpets sounded, there were no fireworks

or angelic hosts; just Nabiki in his arms, sweet upon his lips and

surprising him with her tongue. They only kissed once, but it lingered

forever. He was ready to explode with passion, but knew distantly

that she was not taken with such reckless abandon from him.

What to do? A question that came unbidden into his thoughts

whenever Nabiki Tendo was the subject at hand. He decided to wait

until this business was finished. Even if he had no idea, he was certain

that Nabiki did. It was just a matter of agreeing or disagreeing on her

choice from that point.

Nimatar and Aerandir stepped out into the middle of the gathering,

and Sarophan joined them. All eyes were upon them, and Kuno started

back to reality. Murmurs rose from both sides of the assembled Maiar.

No one knew what would happen. The wind began to form as he

gathered himself to speak.

"Welcome brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and our beloved

cousins," Nimatar called to them with arms open wide for all of them.

"We gather here yet again to meet and talk, and to witness the births

of our children, that they might take their places by our sides one day."

He turned briefly to Sarophan.

"There is also an issue of grave import that divides this gathering

and girds us for useless war," he began in a voice loud enough for all

to hear. "Let us think upon our purpose in this world instead, and let

us look to our ancestors for guidance. Let us sing in celebration for

the new life that will be born on this day!"

Sarophan was the first to start singing, as he clapped his hand

upon Nimatar's shoulder and stood close to him. Other voices joined in

song, haltingly at first, then gathering strength as the emotions began

to flow. Soon all of the Maia were singing the oldest of songs, written

in the first days of great Maianar, and their voices carried above the

very Crown of Eternity itself.

The four women who were with child were led out to the center of

the circle by their husbands, and followed by the midwives and their

assistants. Two were already very close to giving birth, and lay upon

birthing couches that were placed in the circle by friends and relatives.

The Maia continued to sing as the women endured the final throes of

labor.

The Heart of the World rose up from the depths of the earth,

drawn by forces that bound the entire universe in that one infinitesimal

window of space-time that occurred every 88 terrestrial years. The

wind began to swirl gently around the Crown of Eternity, warmed by

the radiance that welled up from within. Light sparkled in flashes

around them.

The song of the Maia rose with joy and exhaltation. They could

feel the life and the energy that coursed through them. They could

feel and hear their ancestors and their departed kin speak to them.

For an instant they could see Maianar in the days when the world of

man was young.

The Heart of the World had risen.

Akane looked down at her heart to see a red thread floating off

into the distance.

"I see it!" She gasped.

Hiro looked at her.

"Where? I don't see anything."

Akane grabbed his hand and started off towards a copse of trees

near the black cliff walls of the Crown of Eternity. Minhiriath followed

close behind. Hiro had just enough presence of mind to chamber a

round in his G-3.

Ferguson watched as his instruments went berserk. Displays began

jumping and flashing as their operators frantically tried to get them

under control. Other researchers who roved the grounds outside the

circle began sweeping their hand-held instruments and A/V gear about

them, trying to capture the final event. It would take them months,

years even, to sift through the data and even longer to figure out

what was happening. If they ever did.

" It's bloody well amazing... " He said to the Professor. " I

honestly never thought I'd see this moment. "

McFogg puffed on his pipe. " I never doubted it, " he replied.

" Diomedes and Andr頴rod the path for us, all we had to do was

follow and persevere. "

Casimir set his hand on McFogg's shoulder. " I can die a happy

man now, Balthazar. "

" I wish you would stay around instead, " McFogg replied.

Mister Clay laughed then.

" As do I, " he said. " I think I shall join them below. I want

to feel the final event from up close. "

Ferguson looked to Katy, who was watching the Maia sing below

in awe.

" What do you think, love? " He asked her.

" That I never doubted you for a second, " she replied without

looking at him. " I knew you would get the model to work. I just had

to get you angry enough to do it. "

Even Nabiki was put off from her grief just a little by the glory

of what transpired at the bottom of the hill. Her songbirds flew lazy

circles around her, singing to her, and with the song of the Maia. She

held her head up high, knowing that Ranma would escape whatever trap

that had been laid for them. He was the greatest martial artist she

had ever known after all. She also trusted to her sister's stubbornness

and great strength of will that she would never give up until Ranma

was safe. Let Palandir meet his fate at the hands of Aerandir. Sarophan

too. For Ukyo's sake.

Ranma felt the days pass by in a blur. He and Ukyo were becoming

fast friends again. Perhaps a little bit more. Every chance he could get

away from the dojo and his violent, uncute fianc饬 he was spending

with his Ucchan.

"Hi Ranchan," she greeted him with her gorgeous smile and her

flashing green eyes. He couldn't get over how beautiful she was.

Why? he thought. Why did my old man have to take me

away from her? I like Ucchan more than I'll ever like Akane... Can't

he see that I'm not happy at the dojo? Doesn't he even care how I

feel?

He knew the answer of course. Genma Saotome couldn't give a

rat's ass about his son's feelings. There was only his stupid selfish

desires. He had spent the last ten years of his life on the road trying

to fulfill his father's dreams. He knew the only reason he agreed to

engage his son to one of the Tendo girls was so that he could move

in to a nice big house and be waited on hand and foot, and have his

son and daughter-in-law take care of him for the rest of his days.

Doubtless Mister Tendo offered so that he could retire and give the

dojo to him for the same reason.

Another example had been what he had done to poor Ucchan.

He promised Ranma to her just so he could get the Kuonji okonomiyaki

yatai as a dowry. He was thinking of his stomach, and not of the little

girl whose life he was destroying. Even if Ranma didn't realize that

Ukyo was a girl, his father did, and had never even asked him

properly when he gave him the choice.

His fists clenched tightly at that one. Some choice... 'Which do

you like better, Ukyo or okonomiyaki?' When you're a little boy on

the road with your dead beat old man, and you never know when or

where your next meal is coming from, what do you think you're

gonna answer?

She read the look on his face.

"You have another bad day with Akane today?" She asked him.

"Yeah..." He replied. "But it's more than that, too."

"Well come on sugar, I'll walk with you back to my place and fix

you something to eat. You can talk to me about it on the way."

He smiled for her.

"Thanks Ucchan. You're the best."

She winked at him.

"I'm your fianc饬 remember?"

He flushed a little at this, but in truth the thought of being

with Ukyo for the rest of his life was making his heart beat hard and

fast in his chest. He wasn't sure if he loved her enough to marry, but

he couldn't think of anyone else he would rather be with -at least as

a friend. Especially Akane, who in addition to being violent, sexless,

and uncute, was also the world's most deadly cook, was all thumbs when

it came to anything other than smashing bricks (or his head), and...

He could go on, but the thought of it only made him bitter.

"What's the matter, Ranchan?"

He sighed.

"I was just thinking about what my stupid old man did to you...

I'm really sorry Ucchan... I hate him for what he did to you and for

tricking me into betraying you."

Ukyo blushed. "I-It's okay Ranchan. I forgave you the day we met

again. I just want to be friends once more..."

Now it was Ranma's turn to blush. Ukyo was brave and took his

hand in hers. He jumped a little at the touch, but didn't let go.

"I-I like you a lot," Ranma said, face still flushed red. "You're

my best friend, Ukyo."

She smiled for him. "Maybe we can be more than friends someday..."

He smiled back, even though his face was on fire. "I-I'd really,

um, I'd really like that, Ucchan."

She laughed. "That's just because I'd make a better wife than Akane

any day," she said in a joking tone that concealed her most heartfelt

desires.

"You said it!" Ranma laughed in reply.

Akane's heart leaped when she found Ranma and Ukyo walking

along the trees and then into a clearing. She called to them, but

neither responded. They gave no sign of even hearing her.

"What's the matter with them?" She asked Minhiriath.

The Maia astronomer narrowed his eyes in concentration at them.

"I'm not familiar with the technique," he replied. "I think it's

some kind of induced dreamstate. It seems as if they are being made to

relive the past, only it is an altered series of events. I can feel

Sarophan's influence on them, so whatever it is they are experiencing,

it is only furthering his ends."

Hiro shrugged. "So what do we do? Go over there and wake them

up?"

"I think that would be a bad idea," Minhiriath declared. "I'm not

familiar with such invasive psionic techniques. It could trap them there

forever."

Akane wasn't listening to him, because she just watched Ukyo take

Ranma's hand, and he hadn't done anything about it. She moved closer

to listen in on what they were saying. If they couldn't hear her, then

they probably couldn't see her as well. She got close enough in time to

hear Ukyo make her remark about being a better wife than her, and Ranma

agreed!

Akane couldn't believe what he'd just heard from him!

"Why that..." She menaced, unable to continue. Pain and anger

welled up from within her heart. Her fists clenched tightly.

"Take it easy Akane," Hiro soothed. "You know he doesn't really

mean it."

"That bastard!" She spat softly, ignoring Hiro.

"It's the spell talking, it's not him."

"I love him!" She continued, oblivious to Hiro's words. "He knows

it. How can he say that?" A tear ran down her face. "He wants to marry

me..."

"Do you really mean that, Ranchan?" Ukyo asked him softly. "Do

you really think I'd make a better wife than Akane?"

"There ain't any doubt about that," Ranma replied. "You're nice to

me. You don't clobber me without any reason. You can cook. You're my

friend..."

Ukyo began to tear about her glittering green eyes.

"Thank you, Ranma," she whispered. "That makes me feel very happy."

Ranma looked at her, marveling at her beauty. "I don't ever want

you to be unhappy, Ucchan. Ever. I'm sorry I ever had to be engaged to

Akane."

"But you were engaged to me first," Ukyo replied hopefully.

Ranma's eyes lit up. "I never thought about that."

Akane began to glow with an eery blue light. Hiro jumped back,

not knowing what kind of grief was about to come Ranma's way, and

hoping it didn't have a blast radius. She surged forward, ready to beat

the daylights out of Ranma. Tears flowed down her face, and her sobs

came between her whispered curses.

Minhiriath put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She shrugged it

off with a grunt. She was going to clobber him, and that was that. He

thought she was violent before, now she was going to show him what

violence really was!

"Akane! You mustn't!" Minhiriath pleaded.

"Why shouldn't I pound the two-timing jerk into jelly for betraying

me!" she cried near the point of collapse. Only her anger was keeping

her from becoming a weeping wreck on the ground.

"If you do that you will lose him forever. I am certain that that

is the reason why Palandir let you and Nabiki go. He expects you to

respond like this."

Akane held herself in check. It was a tenuous hold at best.

"You've got thirty seconds to explain yourself."

"Ranma and Ukyo may not be able to see or hear you, but they

can feel you. Your aura at least. You as a martial artist should know

that your ki is charged with your emotions. You flavor them with

yourself. If you say hateful and hurtful things to him, if you beat him

and curse him, he will not see or hear you, or respond openly in any

way. But he will feel you. It will only drive him further away from you.

Jealousy, anger, and hate are not what you want to give to him. You

must give him your love instead."

She sniffled and wiped away her tears.

"Go to him," he said, pointing towards Ranma and Ukyo. "But

pretend to be upset with him, let it flow from you until you reach him.

I fear Palandir is watching us, and he will not hesitate to kill you if

he thinks you will break the spell that Sarophan has woven around them.

You must let him think that you are playing into their hands."

"He won't touch her," Hiro vowed. He held up his rifle. "I even

see him and I'm shooting first and introducing myself to his corpse."

"Go, quickly now! We shall lie in wait." Minhiriath gave her a

gentle prod. The Maia astronomer and Hiro retreated to the cover

of the trees. Minhiriath was using his talents to keep them concealed

from minds as well as eyes.

The first baby was born. They held the child up for all to see,

and the Maiar's cheer overwhelmed the tiny boy's cries. His mother

stood, letting the rejuvenating energies of the Heart of the World

restore her. She presented her son to his father, who held him

close and kissed his tiny brow. The Maiar cheered a second time.

Clay smiled from the edge of the circle. It was good to see all

of the Maiar together. It lent him hope that they could actually

resolve the conflict between Sarophan and Nimatar. That there

would be no bloodshed. He devoted himself to opening up his

soul to the Heart of the World. As a true psychic it was a sort

of ultimate communion with himself and with the universe. He

understood why the Maia attached a certain sacramental quality

to the event.

Ryoga Hibiki felt the energies of the Heart of the World flow

through him. He was testing them, trying to see how they mingled

with the magical power of the curse within him. He didn't have much

time to figure it out.

"Oh Ranchan, do you think we could be married some day?"

Ranma blushed red. He liked Ukyo, more than any other girl he

had known. But marriage? He tried to think of something to placate

her without committing himself.

"I suppose," he said. "Anything's possible."

Ukyo took him into a hug. He found his arms circling around her.

Akane came up to them. The sight of Ranma hugging Ukyo lashed

at her already fragile heart. She didn't have to pretend to be angry,

on the contrary she was more worried that she would be able to

show any kind of love for him in the face of this.

She called to them. There was nothing. She touched them

tentatively. They didn't respond. They were lost in some kind of

dream based on their past, a past where Akane Tendo had no part

except as the demon that drove Ranma into Ukyo's arms.

She had said hateful and hurtful things to him before. She had

beaten on him and he had suffered it without ever hitting back. She

began to cry because of all of those things she had done to him.

Even if he might have deserved them upon occasion, she was now

so sorry for it.

She looked down at her heart. The red string connecting her to

Ranma was fading away.

No! she cried in her mind. I'm losing him!

"Ranma, I love you!" she cried to him. There was no response.

"I love you!" she told him again. "I'm sorry for all of those

terrible things I said and did to you! I've always loved you! I just

never knew how to show you before..."

Ranma nuzzled against Ukyo's neck as he breathed in the perfume

of her hair. This was a first for him, to be hugged like this. Time

passed slowly as they rocked in each other's arms. Then, for no reason

he could discern, he thought of Akane as he held Ukyo tightly.

Why would I think about that tomboy right now? Ukyo is the one

I care about...

"I love you, Ranchan. I love you with all of my heart!" Ukyo

whispered into his ear then.

His heart leaped at her words. He had never had a girl tell him

that she loved him before. He knew she meant every word. A sudden peace

and happiness welled within him as he squeezed her tighter. He was

about to tell her that he loved her when he thought of Akane again.

"Please, Ranma, come back to me," Akane pleaded softly. "I can't

go on without you."

He let go of Ukyo. She put her hands up to his face instead,

closing her eyes and leaning forward to kiss him. His heart began

racing because she was so cute and she wanted him to kiss her. He

cast aside all thoughts of Akane and leaned forward to accept

Ukyo's kiss.

The red string was almost gone. She couldn't think of anything

else to do or say. Nothing worked. Despair welled up within her,

drowning even her anger.

She heard Palandir's laughter inside of her mind. He was mocking

her. He was laughing at her broken heart because without Ranma by

her side she couldn't hope to stop Sarophan from seizing the Heart

of the World.

His laughter was motivating, for now she had an idea. There was

only one thing left for her to do. Fight for Ranma!

She pushed Ukyo aside with all of her might, throwing the woman

to the ground. As Ranma moved to kiss Ukyo, Akane stepped in and

intercepted his lips. She kissed him as fully and as deeply as she

could, putting all of her love for him into it.

He put his arms around her and held her tight. She began to cry

silently as she kissed him. She tried to think of all the good times

they'd shared. All those quiet moments when they could speak their

hearts to each other. The way he had looked at her right before their

disastrous first wedding attempt. His promise to come home safely from

the war. His proposal to her in Monaco and how beautiful it was; how

beautiful she thought he was. The intimacy and unity of fighting

together as one. Making love to each other for the first time.

Ranma went to kiss Ukyo, but as his lips closed on hers, he found

he was kissing Akane instead. His mind spun circles of confusion, but

Akane wouldn't let him go. He felt her love flood through him.

This ain't right, he thought suddenly, but still in her

wonderful embrace. She's a tomboy, and she can't stand me! Why is

she doing this?... Does she love me?... I thought she hated me...

Akane wouldn't let him go, and suddenly he didn't want her to. He

returned her kiss with equal passion and love. Her tears came full

force as she knew that it was working. She broke from the kiss and

hugged him with back popping might. His spine crackled in appreciation

for the strength of her affection.

It was the pain that jolted him back into reality.

Ranma lifted her off the ground and turned her around in the air.

"Hey, I love you too, Akane, but don't you think we've got other

things to take care of first?" he asked her with a chuckle. It was like

he wasn't even aware that anything was wrong. That anything had

happened between Ukyo and himself.

Ukyo was starting to come around as well. She looked up from

the ground where she landed, and to Ranma suspending Akane in

the air happily. Tears welled at her eyes. She had lost him to Akane.

Lost him forever. She was betrayed by Sarophan even as she had

betrayed her friends.

"I think it worked!" Hiro cried.

"Keep your eyes open for Palandir," Minhiriath admonished.

Ranma looked down to Ukyo. He set Akane on her feet and

offered his hand to her.

"You okay Ucchan? We were worried about you."

She nodded weakly. She was unable to stand it any longer. She

scrambled to her feet and ran away crying. Ranma called to her and

started after her, but Akane tripped him. He landed face first on the

ground.

"What the hell was that for?" He demanded.

"That's how I lost you the first time!" Akane yelled back.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'll explain later, just let her go. We need you back at the

circle right now."

He got to his feet and brushed away his clothes.

"I feel like I'm missing something here."

"That's because you are, you dope! Trust me already," Akane

retorted.

Palandir's voice rang out in the air above them.

"Six of one, half dozen of the other I suppose," he told them.

They looked up to see him floating above them. His hand crackled

with power.

"Dead is just as good as preoccupied as far as I'm concerned," he

finished.

Hiro sprang from the trees and into the clearing as Palandir

appeared. Minhiriath was close behind. Green fire danced on his spear.

"Die you bastard!" Hiro yelled. He burned his entire rifle magazine

at Palandir.

The Maia brought up his hand, and in a wave of blurry air deflected

the bullets with golden sparks. He laughed arrogantly at him.

"Oh boy..." Hiro muttered.

"Run away from him, Ranma! Get back to the circle at once, that

is where you are needed!" Minhiriath cried. Green fire sprayed from

the tip of his spear at Palandir. Palandir side stepped the flames and

launched his fireball of ki energy at the Maia instead. Minhiriath was

blown backwards through the trees in a spray of blue-white flames.

Ranma and Akane started running.

"Did that hurt, Elentirmo?" He called to the trees mockingly. There

was no response.

He watched Ranma and Akane run, and then looked to Hiro, who

had reloaded his rifle.

"I was merciful to Elentirmo, he shall likely survive. You on the

other hand..."

Ranma wasn't about to get blasted in the back while he ran. If he

was going to die, it was going to be fighting. He stopped and faced

Palandir. Akane stepped up to his side and looked defiantly at the

Maia. Palandir had to admire their bravado.

Hiro on the other hand...

"You idiots!" he yelled at them. "Leave this clown to me! Go!"

He switched to semiautomatic, and fired at Palandir.

The Maia grunted in concentration as the muzzle of the rifle

flashed. He turned the bullet aside. As he did so, Hiro fired once more,

deliberately delaying the Maia's attack to buy time for Ranma and

Akane to escape. Palandir turned it aside as well, but was devoting

his concentration away from the two in the process.

"GO!!!" he screamed at them. "How big do you think my magazine

is, anyway?!"

Ranma didn't want to leave any more than Akane did, but

understood what Hiro was doing. He took her hand and started

running for the trees. Palandir hauled back with another ki-blast,

but Hiro blasted a hole through his arm with the G-3. Unfortunately

he was aiming for Palandir's head.

"Don't ever turn your back on me, asshole!" he yelled at the Maia.

Palandir bit down at the pain in his arm. Blood flowed freely down

his bicep as he stanched the flow with a thought, and tried to keep an

eye on Hiro and the fleeing Ranma and Akane at the same time.

Hiro fired again. The Maia turned the bullet.

"You like this?!" Hiro taunted him. "This is my magic trick! Not

very sophisticated, I know, but damn effective I think!" He fired again.

Palandir grit his teeth and deflected it. Hiro wasn't giving him

any time to think, as he was firing with just enough randomness to keep

him guessing. It was all he could do to keep turning the bullets aside.

Hiro meanwhile had backed off to the shelter of some large boulders

at the shoulders of the Crown of Eternity.

Unfortunately Hiro miscalculated the number of rounds he had

remaining in his excitement. When the bolt locked open on an empty

magazine, he was just as surprised as Palandir. Palandir didn't stay

surprised for long.

He reached up and summoned a ki blast in his good hand. He

smiled evilly at Hiro as he prepared to throw it. There wasn't time

for Hiro to do anything, and he had nowhere to go. He lowered the

rifle and stared Palandir in the eyes defiantly.

"Oh yeah," he said tiredly. "This is gonna hurt..."

Ranma and Akane heard the huge explosion behind them, and

knew that Hiro's bullets had run out. Akane began to weep silently

for him. Ranma felt a cold lump in his stomach at the thought of what

had just happened. Rocks rained down around them, trailing wisps

of smoke.

The last child had been born, and been taken out of the circle. The

song ended. Sarophan stepped over to the prism to seize the Heart of

the World. Voices were raised in protest and encouragement as all saw

what he was about to do.

"Do not do this, Uncle!" Aerandir said sternly.

Sarophan looked back to him.

"You are no longer my nephew for your betrayal and for the breaking

of your vow to me."

"My vow to the world and its people comes first," Aerandir replied.

"We implore you to wait, Sarophan," Nimatar cried.

"Wait? I have waited 88 years for another chance."

"Wait one more cycle," Nimatar continued. "These people are

starting to realize their role in this world. They are starting to

become responsible for it. Give them a chance to prove themselves."

"Please listen to him, Sarophan," Anazali's brother Urthel said.

"Give them more time," Anazali added.

"Too little too late," Sarophan replied. "There are too few of

them and they can do only a little. It is not enough."

Aerandir gripped his sword tightly at his side.

Sarophan's silvery eyes flashed. "Don't you see? This is our only

hope, and you turn away from it! You should be joining me!" He

looked to the assembled Maiar.

"I welcome any who would help me in this endeavor!" He called

to them.

They waited, wanting to see what Aerandir and the other fighters

were doing.

"You forget yourself, Uncle!" Aerandir cried. "We are the servants

of the human race! If you do this and take the Heart of the World, no

matter what your intentions may have been, you will become their master!"

"I do not seek to be master of anyone but myself! When the damage

to the world is repaired and our cousins enlightened, I shall let the

Heart of the World go."

"It will be worse than the drowning of Maianar!" A Maia cried.

"At what cost!" Another asked with a shout. "How long will that

be, and how long can you really hope to hold the Heart of the World?"

"As long as necessary," Sarophan replied. "I will not hear your

words anymore. If you wish to join me in creating a bright future for

this world, then stay. If not, then I suggest you leave this place at

once. Your business here is complete."

"My business here is not complete until that prism is smashed,"

Aerandir intoned. "Though I weep at spilling Maia blood, I will fight

and I will die to see that cursed thing laid to waste." He drew his

sword, and silver fire licked upon the blade.

"So be it, Aerandir!" One of Sarophan's own warriors cried. His

spear flashed red. Energy blasts formed in glittering hands. Maiar

clutched weapons tightly, preparing themselves.

In the distance they could hear the staccato cracks of Hiro's

rifle, followed by a great explosion. There was a brief silence.

Then the battle began.

Chapter Five

Ivan Tarchenko and his men heard the shooting in the valley below

them as they made their way down the steep trail that led from a narrow

pass through the Crown of Eternity. He wondered what could be going

on. Fyodor and his men swept down the flank to scout ahead. He sent

the rest of his men to sweep straight towards the prism.

The platoons of soldiers moved out without hesitation. The

battalion commander estimated that they could reach the prism in

fifteen minutes without resistance. They were instructed to shoot

first in any event, whether there was resistance or not.

Fyodor's team was a few hundred meters ahead of the main body

of the battalion. Radio communications weren't working, and so they

had to send runners to pass messages. Fyodor was holding on to his

men as long as possible. Unless he found something that required

immediate dispatch, he was going to keep Tarchenko in the dark.

From the cover of trees he spied McFogg's research group atop

the low hill that stood between them and their objective. He also spied

Doctor Casimir. The man was a standing target of opportunity, and

Fyodor was tired of opportunities slipping through his fingers. He

signaled his men to advance.

Nabiki gasped in fright as the fighting began with unbelievable

ferocity below them in the circle. Ferguson tried to signal his people

on the other side of the circle to get clear and head for Bettie's Dare.

There was no guarantee that the battle wouldn't rage up the hill and

sweep them up with it. She tried to find Kuno in the blazing light of

energy blasts and flashing fiery steel. She couldn't, and her throat

began to tighten and her eyes smart.

Professor McFogg began cursing for Durango and D-Day, but

the two pilots were no where to be found.

" Everyone back to the seaplane! " He ordered. "Leave the

equipment! Your lives are more important. "

The younger researchers didn't hesitate. It was Ferguson, Clay,

Ames, and Katy Price that weren't going anywhere. West was busy

recording the battle on his camcorder.

" Didn't you hear me! " The Professor yelled at them. " Your

lives aren't worth this! Go! "

Doctor Casimir put a steadying hand on the Professor's shoulder.

" This has become their life, Balthazar. They can no more turn their

backs on it than you can. I certainly don't see you running for the

plane. "

The battle was turning against Aerandir and his warriors. Sarophan

had more fighters and more powerful fighters at that. Several Maia were

already lying on the ground near death, trying to use the energy of the

Heart of the World to save themselves. Other energy blasts flew through

the air, lighting it up with every color imaginable.

Anazali turned away a spear thrust meant for his chest, and he in

turn batted away the sword blow meant for her. One of Nimatar's men was

blasted into the air with a great explosion of golden light. He flew

past them mortally wounded. Others wheeled and clashed in the air above

them.

He couldn't believe they were killing each other like this. It was

the last thing he wanted, but it was their only choice. Sarophan would

cause far more hurt if he succeeded.

"Fall back!" he ordered.

They began to withdraw. Sarophan's forces let them disengage. They

were trying to avoid casualties as well. He spotted Kuno, who was

wounded but standing. Blood flowed down his left arm where a sword

tip had struck while his attention was elsewhere. Ryoga was still

standing as well, fists bloody and bruised. His tunic was torn,

exposing the glittering mail beneath.

They pulled back to a line of trees at the edge of the circle.

Their spears held back Sarophans's skirmishers. Past them they could

see Sarophan himself standing next to the prism. More Maiar stood

between him and Aerandir's men. They were raising a wall of force

to protect their master.

Ryoga was panting for breath. His blows could knock down walls,

but some of his opponents had laughed them off. Only his tenacity

matched with his ferocity had allowed him to prevail, but now he was

exhausted. He saw that Kuno was wounded, but the swordsman

refused to be concerned.

"We must have Ranma and Akane, or all that we do is spend

ourselves for naught," Aerandir said to his fighters. "I want six of

you to split off by pairs and look for them. Watch for my brother,

and try to avoid pursuit. The rest of us shall make a cautious advance

on the prism to keep them busy."

Six detached themselves as the rest formed up into a wedge.

The Maiar most proficient in throwing energy blasts took to the air

while the weapons masters braced for their advance. Sarophan's

warriors stood ready to repel the attack. The wall of force came up

around the prism.

Sarophan reached out through the white pyramid that was prism,

focus, window, and door. Through it he could gather the energy of the

Heart of the World, that very link between the Earth and the rest of

the universe. His mind began to open to those forces of creation and

life.

Fyodor advanced up the hill with his squad. As they reached the

top, he gave the order and they opened fire. Screams of pain and

fright mingled with the roar of gunfire. Blood splashed everywhere

as people fell.

Doctor Casimir was the first to fall, shot through and through

five times by Fyodor. His eyes glazed over and he slumped over

Professor McFogg, who was pushed over in that instant and spared.

Ames wasn't as fortunate as he and a few undergrads were cut down in

the fusillade. Ferguson saw Katy Price get hit in the back and

scrambled towards her. Clay took a bullet in the leg and dropped to

the ground. West turned with the camcorder in time to film the

scientist cradling her limp form in his arms. Then he was hit in

the stomach and fell.

Nabiki was bowled over by a fleeing student, feeling the bullets

zip over her head as she fell backwards. The student made it another

meter before dying of numerous gunshot wounds. She screamed in terror

with all her strength before she fell.

As Aerandir's warriors made their advance, Tatewaki Kuno heard

Nabiki scream. His head turned in time to see her fall, and to see

men in arctic camouflage fatigues murdering the scientists. His

guttural snarl of rage and heartsickness rolled out from his lips,

louder than the rest of the battle. More gunfire broke out across

the valley. The Maiar could see the Russians flooding down into the

valley and shooting everything that moved.

He broke ranks and charged at Sarophan's line. Ryoga bellowed

for him to come back, but for Tatewaki Kuno, the shortest distance

to Nabiki was straight through them. He raised his katana on high as

he charged. Blue flames rushed along the blade, licking into the air a

good meter beyond the tip of the sword.

They couldn't stop him. He turned their ki-blasts aside with his

sword. He charged straight at them, but as the sounds of gunfire

echoed across the valley, it became clear to them that the swordsman

had no intentions of reaching Sarophan or the prism. They let him pass

without further attack.

Many of Sarophan's warriors were outraged by the intrusion of

the Russians and broke ranks as well. The noncombatants among the

Maiar were close by, and it was plainly obvious that Russians didn't

care about taking prisoners or showing mercy. In an instant the battle

between the two Maiar factions had become a united fight against the

battalion of Russian troops that had invaded the Crown of Eternity.

Only a line of Sarophan's men and those that kept up the wall of

force stood against the Aerandir, Anazali, Urthel, Ryoga, and a

handful of other Maia.

Fyodor loomed over Nabiki and smiled.

"Itak, vye zdes!"

He hadn't expected to see her here, but he had hoped. It was time

to clean up a few loose ends. He leveled his rifle at her, motioning for

her to put her back to the downward slope that faced the circle. That

way when he shot her to death, he would be rewarded with her

spectacular death dive down the hill.

Nabiki closed her eyes. This wasn't how she was expecting to die.

She certainly wasn't ready to go yet. There was too much left undone.

"Ya gotova," Fyodor told her. "Eto basha ohchered krovotochyiet."

She threw herself at him with a scream. She was not going to stand

there and die.

Fyodor was mildly amused as he caught her across the forehead

with his rifle butt. She landed flat on her back with a gasp as the wind

was knocked out of her. Fyodor let her gasp and cough for breath as

part of the squad moved down the hill.

"Stand up," he growled in broken Japanese.

Nabiki stood, slowly, wobbling. He pushed her several meters back

with the muzzle of his rifle. She glared at him again, blood trickling

down her face.

Fyodor clenched his teeth and squeezed the trigger.

Nabiki watched the first flash erupt from the muzzle with an eery

calm. She never saw any of the others, even though Fyodor had

decided to spend the entire magazine on her. She heard the reports

though, distantly.

She never saw any of the other muzzle flashes because all of a

sudden someone was standing in the way. Someone tall and handsome

with a flashing fiery katana in his hands. Someone who was shouting

at the top of his lungs, "The Hundred Blows!"

She passed out as the dizziness from the blow to her head took

hold of her.

Tatewaki Kuno's sword flashed with sparkling blue flames as he

struck again and again at the burst of rifle fire that sought to take

Nabiki's most precious life. His speed was blinding, the blade

swatting each bullet away and coming back to catch the next one

just in time.

A furious spray of grass and sod blew up between swordsman

and soldier as the deflected rounds burst into the ground before them.

Kuno stood over Nabiki's fallen body, sword roaring with the spectral

blue flames of his ki. All concentration was focused upon Fyodor, and

once again he did not notice the flames.

Fyodor did notice the flames. So did the two others that had

remained with Fyodor. As the big Ukrainian stepped back to put

distance between himself and Kuno, his two men rushed the

swordsman.

Kuno lashed out with a graceful stroke that started low, with him

nearly bent double at the waist. The first burst of gunfire sailed over

his head by mere inches. His blade came up to catch the man across

the throat. In a fluid motion he sprang up, sidestepping the second

man's burst and neatly beheading him with a backhanded swing.

Fyodor had wisely chosen this point to make a strategic retreat that

he might gun the man down unawares later.

Kuno would have pursued had he not remembered that Nabiki

was injured. How severely he did not know, but that was of little

consequence. She was injured, therefore he must help her, even

though he be denied the opportunity to slay what had become his

very nemesis these last few weeks.

Nabiki lived. So did Ferguson, Clay, and the Professor. West

was badly injured. Kuno ignored them as he knelt over Nabiki. She

had a bloody gash over her forehead where Fyodor's rifle had struck

her. Not a single bullet had touched her, however.

He took her up gently into his arms as the sounds of gunfire and

ki blasts rippled across the Crown of Eternity. His sword he lay upon

the bloody grass by his side. She was starting to come around as he

held her and wept silently.

"Hey Tate-chan," she whispered fondly to him.

He opened his tearstained eyes.

"How gravely art thou wounded, Nabiki?" He asked her.

She rubbed at her head and groaned when she saw the blood that

came away. "Nothing mortal, Tate-chan. I'll be okay; I just need to

lie down or something. I'm a little dizzy."

"You must stand, Nabiki. You must stay awake. You have a head

injury."

The Professor limped over to them. He placed a hand on Kuno's

shoulder.

" Do not worry young man, I shall look after her. "

Kuno looked up at him. He was hit in the arm and ankle and bled

slowly as he stood over him.

" You are wounded as well, " Kuno observed. " I shall stay and

look after her myself. "

The Professor waved him off tiredly.

" Nonsense, man. I have suffered far worse than this. You are

needed with Aerandir and the others. Ferguson, Clay, and I shall

see her to the encampment. There are healers among the Maia who

can look after us all. "

Kuno looked to Ferguson, who continued to cradle the lifeless

form of Katy Price. The scientist looked up at them, grief-stricken.

The Professor motioned for him to stand.

" Let her be, Ferguson. There is nothing you can do for her. I

will need help with West and the other wounded. "

Ferguson nodded slowly and lay Katy gently upon the grass.

McFogg looked back to Kuno.

" Go now young man. Your sword is needed elsewhere. "

Nabiki struggled to her feet.

"He's right Tate-chan. We'll be okay, the fighting is moving

outwards away from the center," she told him. They could see it

clearly enough, the gunsmoke and the flashes of light from ki blasts

was moving away from circle. Within the circle there was only a

standoff.

"I have left you once to your own devices Nabiki," he rebuked.

"I cannot again until I am certain that you are safe. I swear upon my

life before the very heavens that you shall come to no more harm this

day. Therefore I shall accompany thee to the camp."

Nabiki's head hurt too much for an argument. She also understood

that they weren't out of danger yet. Kuno's sword might indeed come

in handy.

"Come on Tate-chan," she said tiredly. "At this rate the fight'll

be over before you get back into it. You still owe them twenty-fold for

what they've done to me, remember?"

"Nay, Nabiki. I shall split the sky itself with my wrath."

They hobbled down the hill towards Nimatar's encampment, fearful

that they would be attacked again. Ferguson and Clay carried the

unconscious West. Kuno cradled Nabiki in his arms. Her songbirds

had survived the onslaught, and now cooed gently for her as they

perched on Kuno's shoulder.

Ranma and Akane made it to the circle just as the Russians began

clashing with the Maiar. Neither was certain about what was going

on, especially since they thought that the only ones carrying guns were

Hiro and the two pilots. Palandir was somewhere behind them, and

that thought drove them on.

Aerandir looked away from the skirmish line in time to see Ranma

and Akane burst into the circle. He ordered his warriors to disengage

from their cautious probes and form around them. Anazali and Urthel

were the first to reach them.

"Where have you been?" Anazali cried.

"We ran into that guy Palandir, he should be right behind us!"

Ranma replied.

The ground blew up close by to illustrate his point.

Palandir received a volley of answering blasts from Aerandir's

warriors as he floated in the air above a copse of trees. He shrugged

them off with a laugh. His finger was leveled at Ranma and Akane,

and electricity leaped up from the ground to wreath him in blinding

blue light as he gathered the power for his attack.

"You've been very troublesome about this," he intoned. "Now to

ashes with you!"

Ranma spun around on his heels in time to see the bolt of lightning

fly. He pushed at Akane with all of his might to get her out of the way.

That left little time for himself to do the same. He clenched his teeth

in that millisecond of dread that he had left to wait.

The bolt of lightning arced out at him only to be seized up in a

brilliant flash of light upon steel as Ukyo leaped out of nowhere to

catch it with her battle spatula. She spun around in midair with

electricity crackling all over her body. At the end of her spin she

whipped the bolt of lightning back at Palandir with her spatula and

a great cry of pain and effort.

The bolt struck him dead on, propelling him backwards through

the air trailing smoke and motes of blue-white light. The thunderclap

report only then struck their ears. Ukyo fell to the ground with wisps

of smoke rising from her trembling body. Her hair was standing on end.

Ranma rushed over to her, as did Akane and Anazali. Urthel kept

the watch for Palandir. He knew the Maia was capable of taking that

much punishment and coming back for more.

"Ucchan!" Ranma cried.

Ukyo looked up at him with a teary smile.

"Ucchan! Are you okay?"

She nodded weakly. "Give me a second to catch my breath, honey."

Ranma hugged her tightly and then let her go. "Where did you learn

how to do that? That was amazing!"

"Sarophan taught me," she replied. A sob wracked her. "I was

supposed to use it on you if you tried to stop him," she whispered.

"But why?" Akane asked.

Ukyo lowered her eyes.

"You know why..." She managed.

"For Ranma?" Akane asked softly.

"Huh?" Ranma grunted. "Ucchan, you know how I feel about Akane."

"I know," she sobbed bitterly. "I thought I had a chance," she

continued. "Sarophan made it sound like no one would get hurt...

He lied to me."

She clasped Ranma and Akane's hands in hers.

"I love both of you," she said to them. "I couldn't hurt either of

you... Forgive me."

Akane saw how much Ukyo hurt to have betrayed them, how sorry

she was. As much as she wanted to throttle her for trying to take Ranma

away, she couldn't find it in her heart to stay angry with her. Ukyo was

her friend. She still believed that.

"I... I forgive you Ukyo," she said to her. She squeezed Ukyo's

hand in hers.

Ranma kissed her forehead softly. "I forgive you too, Ucchan." His

voice became low and gravelly as he looked across the huge grassy

circle to the prism and Sarophan. "I know who's gonna pay for this..."

Nobody does this to Ucchan...

He took Akane's hand in his.

"Come on Akane, here's where we finish this."

They stood and faced the prism. Ryoga and Aerandir joined them

a moment later. Sarophan stood oblivious to them, though his warriors

knew that the two young Japanese were a serious threat. They braced

for another attack.

"Look after Ukyo," Ranma told Ryoga.

"Who's gonna keep you from getting killed?" Ryoga snarled,

pointing to the Maia who guarded the prism.

"Then it'll have to be you, I guess," Ranma replied with a grin.

"If that's how you want it."

Ryoga nodded grimly.

Ranma offered his hand. Ryoga looked down and clasped him at

the wrist. They locked hands about each other's arms and shook, just

once, but there was power that flowed between them in that instant.

Ranma's newly learned sensitivity to such things tipped him off that

there was something odd about Ryoga. Something unfamiliar. He

didn't have time to dwell on it though, and with a firm nod they let go.

Aerandir was glad to see the two reconciled.

"I shall deal with Palandir should he recover in time to stop you.

In the meanwhile you must destroy the prism. I can feel that my uncle

is very close to seizing the Heart of the World."

Ukyo rose unsteadily to her feet.

"I'll help you two," she told Ranma and Akane. "I've still got a

little fight left in me."

"You've helped us already Ucchan," Ranma replied.

"Ranma's right Ukyo, you've done your part. You should rest."

Akane told her.

Ukyo brushed her hair back into some semblance of order with

her left hand. In her right she clutched her slightly scorched battle

spatula. The glitter of mail could be seen beneath the rips and tears

of her clothes.

"I have a personal stake in this now," she returned.

Her green eyes burned.

Ivan Tarchenko was starting to realize that he was in over his head.

His battalion of Special Forces had run into a hornet's nest of advanced

psionic archetypes. They were blasting his troops to bits. They could

withstand wounds that would have killed normal men. What few they

could kill weren't enough to stem the tide of battle.

He was about to give the order to retreat, knowing that it meant a

long march back to the ice shelf and the hoping that they could reach the

LCACs (Landing Craft Air Cushion; a hovercraft) and helos in time

to get them back to the ships. As he was about to give the order he

ran into Fyodor and his squad.

"There is little opposition near the center," Fyodor lied. A maniac

with a flaming sword was a lot of opposition, but if there were enough

men to engage him, even he couldn't deflect all of their bullets. "If

we make a hard push for the center of the valley we can capture the

prism."

Tarchenko needed some hope. He was a dead man if he didn't

succeed. He called his remaining officers and gave them their orders.

His reserves came down from the rocky slopes and formed up for a

push on the center of the valley while his remaining forces skirmished

desperately with the Maia.

The troops moved out under the cover of the trees towards the

circle.

Sarophan was close. He could feel the power of the Heart of the

World coursing through him. He could almost touch it. He just needed

a little more time to study it and its relationship with creation. He

had been so close before, 88 years ago, and so he knew it wouldn't take

long before he was ready to take that final step:

Snare the Heart of the World and put things to right once again.

They would venerate him once he had succeeded. He understood

their fears, could see why they were afraid. They had never stepped

within the Heart of the World with the intent of snaring it. They didn't

understand how beautiful and timeless creation truly was.

At the dim fringes of his focused awareness he spied the Wayfinders

approaching the wall of force his servants had erected around the prism.

Ianthe was with them. She stood by their side.

He felt a tugging at his heart. She had failed to win the love of

Ranma Saotome, or else had been overcome by the love of Akane

Tendo for him. He wished there was more he could do for her, but

now it seemed that she chose to make her stand against him. As much

as it pained him, he would have to stop her, the technique he had taught

her was too dangerous if used against him.

With a mental prompt to his warriors, they prepared to battle the

Wayfinders and their companions.

Do not do this, Sarophan...

It was the spirits of the Maia trapped in the Heart of the World.

Sarophan sighed. Even you can't understand, can you?

We know you have the best of intentions, Sarophan, but you are

mortal like any other man. Your hungers will get the best of you. You

will destroy this world.

I will free you! Too long have you languished in your prison,

he retorted. You have grown accustomed to it, and so you are

loathe to leave it behind and pass on into the next realm.

You do not fully appreciate that which you do, Sarophan. This is

a power the world is not ready for. This is a power even the race of

Maia is not ready for. Do not follow us into our folly. You have seen

our beautiful land drown beneath the sea. You have seen how it

destroyed us.

Enough! Sarophan thundered. Must I fight with the timid

souls of my own kind?

Tatewaki Kuno and the others made it to Nimatar's camp. Healers

were already hard at work tending to the wounds of their own. West

was given up to their care, as he was the most critically injured among

them.

A Maia looked after Nabiki. While he had no healing Talents of his

own, he was a fully qualified paramedic living in Southern California

-when he wasn't immersed in his real role as one of the secret

caretakers of the world. The head injury wasn't life threatening as

far as he could tell.

Kuno seemed satisfied and started to leave the camp to rejoin his

companions at the circle. Nabiki stopped him with a tug at his bloody

sleeve. He turned around and gave her a stern look.

"Thank you Tate-chan," she told him quietly.

Kuno nodded solemnly.

"I would spend my life for thee," he said, and turned away to

rejoin the battle. Gunfire continued to crackle across the valley,

answered by the shrills and blasts of answering ki attacks.

Heironymous Durango and D-Day stumbled across Minhiriath as

they retreated from the Russians. Tarchenko's men had seized the

meadow where their Catalina sat in the hopes they could get a

helicopter working and use the spot as a landing zone. They weren't

sure if they would have a seaplane to come back to.

Minhiriath was alive and intact, although his clothes were burned

and torn from the ki blast Palandir had thrown at him. He sat up, still

woozy from the blow, and looked around.

"Did Ranma and Akane escape?" He asked the two pilots.

" Escape from who? The Russians? " Durango asked him in reply.

"No! From Palandir!"

Durango and D-Day looked at each other and scratched their heads.

" Haven't seen any of your friends except from a distance. They're

busy with those damn russkies. "

"I hope they did," Minhiriath said in a low voice. "We must look

for them."

" You okay to walk, man? " D-Day asked as he helped the

golden-skinned Maia to his feet.

"I shall manage. I can draw upon the energies of the Heart of the

World if need be." Minhiriath thought about what he had said.

Desperately he reached out with his mind and was comforted by the

fact that it didn't seem to be bound. Yet. He could feel Sarophan's

mind wrapped around it loosely. He was close.

They searched around the clearing where they had confronted

Ukyo and then Palandir. Smoke wafted from one end where the

slopes of the Crown of Eternity reached to the valley. They saw a

shattered H&K G-3 rifle not far from a smoking crater gouged out

of the rock.

" Oh shit, that's Hiro's rifle! " Durango cursed.

They ran over to the crater. Scraps of Hiro's burned tunic wafted

in the breeze. Blood splattered the rocks in tiny red droplets.

D-Day lowered his head in remorse. Durango turned away, unable

to look at the crater. As the pilot did so, he caught a glint of

silvered mail. His eyes traveled to the spot to find Hiro's prone form

lying among the boulders. Smoke streamed up from his body, licking

from between the links of mail.

" Is he dead? " D-Day asked when he saw what Durango was

looking at.

" He ain't moving, " Durango replied.

They went over to him. Dried blood streamed down both nostrils

and caked over his lips and down his bruised throat. What skin was

visible beneath the mail hauberk and tattered scraps of clothes was a

wealth of cuts and bruises.

Durango leaned close to Hiro's lips.

He was rewarded with a ragged breath.

" Sonuvabitch! " Durango cried. " The little bastard's still

kickin'! "

Minhiriath moved in by Durango's side. He placed his hands upon

the fallen Hiro. He mumbled softly, as if he was talking to him.

Hiro sat bolt upright.

"I'm late for school!" He cried.

He looked around with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Where the hell am I?"

Durango looked to D-Day.

" You got any idea what he's saying? "

" Nope. "

"Am I dead?" Hiro went on.

Minhiriath calmed Hiro with a gentle press of warm hands upon his

brow.

"Rest easy Mister Ohata," the Maia assured him. "Your mail shirt

has taken the brunt of the blast. Palandir must have been unaware that

you were so armored, else he would have used a stronger attack."

Hiro looked down at his chest. The mail gleamed brightly in the

golden light, though smoke continued to wisp from it. He checked to

make sure all his limbs were still attached. They were, but his left leg

was broken.

"I feel like the middle of a scrum with the Brisbane Broncos," he

sizzled with pain as he tried to stand without putting weight on his

broken leg. Minhiriath continued to lay his hands upon Hiro, who

could feel that the man was trying to heal him somehow.

" What the hell do you think you're doing? " Durango asked

incredulously. " Your friggin' leg's broken. "

" So splint it already, " Hiro replied with clenched teeth. " I'm

not out of this yet. Judging from the fact that we aren't all dead yet,

I'd say Palandir is still chasing after Ranma and Akane -which means

they aren't dead yet either. "

" So? "

" So I'm going after them. " He drew one of his Sigs. " I owe

Palandir big time for this. " He winced again as he felt Minhiriath set

the fractured bone in his leg.

Durango shook his head. " We've got more problems than that.

There's about five hundred gun toting Baryshnikovs running around

shooting at everything that moves and occasionally things that don't. "

" I don't care, " Hiro replied. He bit down on a scream as

Minhiriath bound his leg with scraps of his tunic and the broken

pieces of his spear.

"You have your splint," Minhiriath told him.

" I don't believe this! " Durango yelled at him. " You're actually

helping this maniac? "

" Got anything for the pain? " Hiro asked them.

D-Day shrugged and pulled a bottle of aspirin from his coat pocket.

He threw the bottle to Hiro, who caught it up and swallowed six of

them without hesitation.

" Beggars can't be choosy I guess, " he said with a clenched teeth

smile. " Let's go. "

Durango threw up his hands and drew his .45. D-Day had a rather

large S&W Model 629 revolver in (of course) .44 Magnum. A brace

of pistols wasn't much against machine guns and assault rifles, to say

nothing of the firepower from a pissed off Maia, but Hiro was resolved

to work with what he had.

He led the way, limping, but determined. Durango and D-Day

followed behind, steadying him occasionally. Minhiriath brought up

the rear, looking out for the Russians or perhaps Palandir's return.

Ranma had Akane's hand in his. Ukyo was to their left, and Ryoga

to their right. Aerandir stood behind them. Anazali and Urthel prepared

to face off against Palandir when he recovered. Nimatar and Aerandir's

warriors braced for another charge against the prism.

Sarophan's warriors braced as well. They knew that this time

Aerandir's forces wouldn't hold back. The Wayfinders were here.

They would press on until the end.

"One final chance, Uncle!" Aerandir called to Sarophan.

"Relinquish the prism to us before any more Maia blood is spilled!"

Sarophan ignored him. He was channeling the Heart of the World

through the prism. They were too late.

In that moment all of the Maia could sense what was happening.

Even Ranma could feel that Sarophan was seizing the Heart of the

World that very moment.

"We're outta time!" He yelled. "He's doing it!" He surged forward,

and Akane went with him. "ATTACK!!!"

He ran straight at the Maia who guarded the prism. Akane was

there by his side. He could feel the tension radiating from her, the

apprehension. He knew it would pass once the blows started falling.

He knew she could take care of herself.

They leaped as one with a great cry. The Maia tried to dodge

clear, but that was what Ranma was expecting. As Akane sailed

past and into another warrior, Ranma somersaulted, bringing his

arms out and clotheslining the Maia with his forearm. As he popped

to his feet he spun around in a fierce spin kick that caught a third in

the chest as he tried to chop Akane in half with a flaming sword. He

flew backwards and sank against the wall of force.

Akane knew her attacker was there, but in some funny way she

knew she didn't have to worry about him. Instead she lashed out with

a bone breaking chop that went through a spear raised in defense and

down upon the Maia's shoulder. He buckled, and she followed up

with a kick that was faster than she had ever thrown in her life. The

warrior lost all his breath as she connected in the solar plexus.

Ryoga was impossible to bring down. Blow upon blow fell upon

him, but he shrugged them off. He grappled with one warrior after

ripping the Maia's spear right out of his hands and picked him up

over his head. He threw him down with enough force to stun him.

One of Aerandir's warriors grabbed the Maia and pulled him clear

of the fight to be bound.

Ukyo lashed out with her battle spat. Energy blasts directed at

her were whipped back in their faces. Tears stung her eyes as she

knew these people had been her friends only hours ago. Though they

were siding with the wrong man, they were still good people.

She parried a sword blow and twisted around the Maia in time to

step between his legs and trip him. Instead he rose into the air and

struck her in the head with the palm of his hand. She was knocked

senseless to the ground. Before the Maia could finish her, Ryoga was

there standing over Ukyo. His hands were raised and cupped together.

He needed fuel for this, and the thought of Ukyo dying was more than

enough.

"SHI SHI HOKODAN!!!"

The Maia caught a face full of Ryoga's ki blast, and sailed over

the wall of force to land several hundred meters away.

Ukyo scrambled to her feet and quickly kissed his cheek.

"You're a lifesaver, sugar!"

Ryoga began to blush, but there wasn't time for more. They were

back in the thick of it a moment later. Ryoga snarled, Ukyo brandished

her battle spat, and Sarophan's warriors found out how powerful their

cousins could be.

Ranma and Akane were fighting back to back. Word that the

Wayfinders had arrived had drawn Sarophan's faction away from the

fight with the Russians and back to the circle. There were too many of

them for Aerandir and the others to stop with ki blasts.

Ranma's fists whipped out with the full fury of his Amigurikan

technique. It was just enough speed to land a few blows, but he was

certain that he was fighting the same guys he was knocking down just

moments earlier.

They're using the Heart of the World's power to heal

themselves... He realized suddenly. He and the others didn't know

how to do that. It was just a matter of time before they were worn down.

Akane was starting to get tired. He could feel it as she cried out

again and again with each strike and parry. She tensed behind him,

and he knew she was going to dodge.

He leaped into the air as a ki-blast rippled beneath the two of

them. Clasping Akane's wrists, he threw himself over her in a

somersault that reversed their positions. Ranma now faced off

against the warrior who threw the blast.

He threw out his hands. They had practiced this move before,

and Akane knew what to do even if she couldn't see it. That part

of Akane that was within him burned as she fed him her power.

"MOKO TAKABISHA!!!"

His blast fountained forth, bowling over a dozen of them. He

watched as others scattered into the air to avoid the blast and readied

counterstrikes. He was about to grab Akane and run when Ukyo

appeared before him with her humungous spatula. The Maia held

back, knowing that she could catch their blasts and throw them back

at them.

"Thanks again Ucchan," Ranma grunted.

"There's too many of these guys," Ukyo replied. "I don't know

how much longer I can keep this up!"

"They keep restoring themselves and coming back!" Ranma shot

back as elbow slammed one of them. "We're fighting the same guys

over and over!"

Ryoga took a ki-blast that blew him to the ground nearby. His tunic

was smoldering as he struggled back to his feet. His eyes burned with

a fury. He was about to charge after the warrior, even though the Maia

was floating thirty feet off the ground.

"Ryoga, wait!" Ranma cried. They were cut off from Aerandir's

warriors, who were now outnumbered three to one and barely holding

their own -but only because of Aerandir's own strength and power.

There's too many and we can't stop them. We need some

breathing room.

"Time for some crowd control," he barked. "Akane, grab

Ryoga! Ucchan, stay real close to me!"

"What are you going to do?" Akane asked quickly. Her foot lashed

out, keeping those closest to her at bay.

"Trust me," Ranma replied. "Just stay as close as possible to me

and hang on."

"You aren't serious!" Ukyo cried, understanding his intent.

"Oh yeah I am!"

Akane pulled Ryoga close as Ukyo moved against Ranma. She

wasn't sure how close she had to be and wasn't going to take any

chances.

Ranma grit his teeth, thinking about how he had done this twice

before. Once in Korea, once in Paris. There was far more power

available here, even if Sarophan was collapsing it down into the prism.

He began turning a slow circle. Akane burned within him, an

almost consuming brightness. She had learned quickly how to

channel her ki into him and he smiled proudly as he turned his

spiral faster. He drew upon the energies of the Heart of the World,

feeling them rush into him even as Sarophan's mind clawed for the

scraps he was stealing from the Maia. Ryoga swallowed nervously

behind him, now understanding Ranma's intentions as well.

The Maiar could feel the ki buildup and hesitated for a moment.

The threat of Ukyo was enough to keep them from bombarding the

quartet. They had no choice but to charge.

As they came close, they could feel Ranma drawing out their own

ki and using it against them. Too late they saw the trap. Their last bit

of energy was the priming charge for what followed. A hot wind

spiraled up around the four. Ranma raised his fist high over his head.

"HIRYU SHOTEN HAAAA!!!!"

The cyclone exploded up and around them, reaching clear into the

stratosphere. A sonic boom rolled out, flattening all who weren't in

range to be drawn up into the cyclone as the winds rushed at over

a thousand miles an hour. Those who were caught were flung

thousands of feet into the air, nearly completely drained of power.

Only their superior constitutions kept them from being slain, but

there was no chance that they would be returning to fight this day.

In the middle of the smoking crater stood Ranma, Akane, Ryoga,

and Ukyo. Except for Ranma, the others were ghost white in shock.

Ranma brought his smoldering fist down to his side to survey what he

had done.

There were no more of Sarophan's warriors standing. Those

that were still in the circle were now bound and unconscious with

Nimatar's will. Aerandir's hair was blown back and his eyes were

wide open. Anazali and her brother Urthel had similar expressions.

"The polite thing to do would be to warn us about that," Aerandir

said with a slight smile.

"I shoulda done it sooner," Ranma replied. He nearly sunk to his

knees, but Ukyo caught him. "That took the wind right out of me."

He turned around to see that the Maia behind the wall of force

still stood, as did their wall. Sarophan was safe behind the wall with

the prism. Ranma groaned.

"We still gotta get through that wall," he said grimly. "Any

suggestions?"

Ukyo stepped forward. "Leave it to me, honey."

"Are you sure you can do it?" Akane asked her.

"We'll find out," Ukyo replied. She brought out her spatula and

grit her teeth. She passed it through the wall of force and screamed.

"Ukyo!" Ranma and the others cried in unison.

"I've got it!" Ukyo gasped. "It's not quite what I was expecting,

but..."

She dug in with her feet and wrenched upwards with her spatula.

It was the focus for her will, which was against the ki that flowed from

the Maiar beyond and which shaped the air into the barrier. She lifted

with all her might, thinking about her betrayal and desperate to atone

for it. The wall of force was wrenched free of their control. She flung

it aside, and it disintegrated back into the air from which it came.

Within, the Maia clutched at their heads and collapsed. Ukyo

followed them into unconsciousness a moment later.

The prism was wide open.

Ranma wasted no time. He and Akane rushed the prism, intent on

destroying it no matter what happened. Ryoga took Ukyo into his

arms and carried her to safety.

Palandir appeared, his clothes burned and torn. His face was

bloody. There was madness dancing behind his eyes. Aerandir flew

up at him with his sword alight in raging silver flames. The two

brothers floated a few meters apart, and the other Maia stayed clear

of them.

"We finish this, brother!" Palandir said to Aerandir.

"Agreed. Though I will not slay you if you ask for quarter."

"There shall be no quarter!"

Aerandir sighed, "so be it."

They began without further preamble, swords flashing and crashing

with sprays of silvery sparks. There could only be one outcome to this

battle, and Nimatar wept silently below them.

Sarophan was about to close the last of the Heart of the World

into the prism when the wall of force fell. Once he had all of the

energy under his dominion, they would not be able to stop him. To

shatter the prism at that point would kill everyone in the Crown, to

say nothing of what would happen to the rest of the world. He did

not believe they were prepared to go that far.

Ranma could feel that Sarophan was close, and in that instant the

Maiar within the Heart of the World explained that he would never

reach the prism in time. There was another way.

You picked a fine time to tell me what to do... Ranma

growled in his mind.

He knew he didn't have the strength for this, but there was no

other choice.

He reached out and grabbed that last shred of the Heart of the

World as if he was going to throw another ki blast. Only he didn't

use it and he didn't let go. Power burned within him.

Sarophan couldn't believe the man was doing this.

"You're a fool!" he said to Ranma.

"That's what I keep hearin' about you!" Ranma shot back. "After I

rip this thing out of your hands I'm gonna get you back for what you

did to Ukyo!"

Sarophan said nothing, but exerted more of his power.

Ranma could feel him tugging hard at that last scrap of the Heart

of the World. He felt himself being ripped apart from within. He

wouldn't let go, but Sarophan was just too strong. He screamed in agony.

"Ranma!" Akane cried worriedly. She took his hand and tried to

give him some of her strength. She didn't know what he was doing,

but she knew enough to know that he wasn't strong enough for it. As

she took his hand she felt herself being ripped apart as well, but her

stubbornness and her own force of will kept her hanging on. She was

Ranma's lifeline, the only thing holding him together. She wasn't going

to let go.

The Maiar within the Heart of the World had foreseen this. They

had made their choice, had never once regretted it, and as the two

young martial artists held on against a foe they could not defeat, they

were vindicated. They had groomed Ranma Saotome and Akane Tendo well

for this moment, and now acted.

Ranma became a conduit for them in the Material World.

They flooded within him then, their wills joining with his. He

wanted them out of him, but they were as irresistible as Sarophan.

Do not fight with us, they told him.

I don't like being a pawn! He shot back.

If you wish to win this fight you must let us help you.

I got this guy right where I want him, he rebuked bitterly,

knowing it was the farthest thing from the truth.

A slowly moving whirlpool of ki energy formed around them as

the three stood around the prism. The other Maia backed away,

and save for Aerandir and Palandir's duel, all of the fighting had

stopped in the circle. Nimatar's warriors held the circle, but the

final battle was only now being joined. All they could do was watch

and wait.

Ukyo was conscious now, with Ryoga looking after her. She

sat up in time to catch glimpses of Ranma and Akane squaring off

with Sarophan through the whirlpool. Then Nabiki's songbirds

alighted upon her shoulder and began chirping desperately.

"What is it?" she asked them, forgetting for a moment that they

were just birds.

Ryoga crossed his eyes in confusion. "You mean you can

understand them?"

Ukyo shrugged, "Not a peep, but something's wrong from the

sound of them." She thought about it for a second or two as they

continued chirping for attention. "Why aren't they with Nabiki?"

Ryoga snapped his fingers.

"Unless something's happened to her!"

"Oh Gods!" Ukyo cried. "I think you're right!" She got to her

feet. Those Maia not watching the whirlpool were watching Aerandir

and Palandir duel above them. She looked for someone she recognized.

All of the Maia she knew were now bound.

Ryoga got to his feet as well. "If only Minhiriath were here. He'd

know what they were saying."

Aerandir lashed out with his sword, and his brother barely turned

it aside. Palandir was hurt, and that leveled the playing field

considerably. The mariner doubted his ability to defeat him in

swordplay otherwise, a fact evidenced by their recent skirmish in Paris.

He renewed his attacks; Palandir was on the run. There was hope

that he could defeat him without taking life or limb.

"You are hurt, brother. You cannot defeat me. Surrender and I

will spare your life."

Palandir snarled in reply. He threw himself with fresh fury at

Aerandir, whipping his blade around and drawing blood with a

shallow slash across the thigh. Aerandir stifled a cry and brought

his flamberg頵p to parry another blow meant to decapitate him.

"It is you who will surrender to me, brother. I can only promise

you a swift death however!"

"You have already lost this fight," Aerandir intoned as they

grappled close and locked their baroquely formed quillions together.

"Even if I am slain, you are too late to stop Ranma and Akane. They

are in the hands of our ancestors, and you cannot harm them without

undoing all that you hope to achieve!"

"Uncle will do what he set out to do," Palandir rebuked. He broke

free of their grapple by punching at Aerandir's face with his sword

hand. "Those two children are no match for him, even in the hands of

our kin!"

Aerandir didn't reply. He knew there was no guarantee that

Ranma and Akane could stop Sarophan. They were in fact very fragile

china dolls set loose in the middle of a tornado. If they didn't

succeed they would be ripped apart in more senses than just a

physical one.

"I am right!" Palandir crowed. He lashed out again with his blade.

"You know they cannot win!" Aerandir wasn't fast enough to parry the

blow in time.

The stroke took Aerandir across the chest and more blood flowed.

His vision dimmed for a second as the shock of his wound hit him. He

felt his grip upon his sword slacken and a delirious pain flooded

through him. At least a lung was ruptured, possibly even a pulmonary

artery.

Anazali screamed his name as the red spray scattered across the

grassy clearing of the circle. Aerandir began to float slowly to the

ground, no longer able to stay airborne. He grit his teeth against the

pain. There was no energy for him to draw upon here, it was all in the

prism or being fought over that very instant. This fight was ended.

Perhaps one of the others can stop my brother...

Palandir laughed and raised his sword for the killing blow.

"It is certain now..." Palandir intoned. "You shall die, but fear

not, brother, I shall send your little Wayfinders to join you in the

next world. Sing for them your songs..." He dropped the blade in its

execution strike.

"Very little is certain!" Aerandir shot back with a wet and raspy

voice. Blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. He raised his head.

"I admit that much." His blade rang as it caromed off his brother's.

Silver fire flashed in his eyes. "What I am certain of is that you shall

do no more harm to them!"

He swung his sword high over his head. His last remaining strength

flowed into his sword. Silver fire roared from the wavy steel of the

flamberg鮠With both hands he struck out at Palandir.

The Maia dropped his blade to parry. Aerandir's sword cleaved

through it in a bright explosion of light and spectral fire. Palandir

didn't have time to scream as the sword cleaved through him from crown

to crotch. He wasn't halved by the blow, but it was no less mortal for

it.

The two brothers fell to the grassy ground with wet thuds.

Aerandir's sword plunged point down into the grass, wisps of silver

fire flickering out of existence in tiny sparkles of light. The shards

of Palandir's sword were consumed by silver fire and floated away as

little motes of color.

Anazali was the first to reach them. She could feel Palandir's soul

slipping away into the next world. She reached out with her mind,

hoping that Aerandir's soul had not already departed. Her unspoken

question was answered with a curl of Aerandir's fingers as he lay

upon the blood slicked grass.

She cried out in surprise and then fell over him and wept. Nimatar

and Urthel rushed over to them. Aerandir looked up at them and felt

Anazali's hand warm against the icy flesh of his own.

"I am not yet done for this world," he whispered to her. "Though

my span has little remaining to it. I have no strength left within

myself to repair the damage done."

"Then take of me, Sil Amarn," she whispered in reply. "I give it

freely, for your loss this day is too dear a price even though we may

yet triumph."

"You have little remaining to yourself," he told her. "None of

you do."

"There is enough for us both." She kissed his brow, and he felt

part of her rush into him. Flesh and bone began the torturous process

of knitting together. "You have lost much of your noble blood, Sil

Amarn, yet now I think you shall spill no more this day upon the grass."

Tarchenko and Fyodor saw the cyclone shoot high into the air.

The sonic boom concussion knocked them flat a moment later. As

they and the other soldiers struggled to their feet, Tarchenko realized

that he could not oppose such a power as that directly.

"Hostages!" he cried.

"What do you mean Ivan Mikhailiyvich?" Fyodor asked.

"We barter their women and children for the prism," he replied.

Fyodor nodded his head. Anything was better than going up against

whatever had just caused that cyclone.

"The encampment!" Fyodor yelled to his men. "Seize as many

hostages as you can!"

They moved out for the short run away from the circle and towards

Nimatar's camp. They ran into little resistance, as every Maia at this

point was dead, badly wounded, engaged elsewhere, or too exhausted

to fight with all of the energies of the Heart of the World in contest.

Tarchenko's men swept into the camp and began rounding them up.

They were a sorry lot; mostly women and children and wounded.

The sorrier the better Tarchenko supposed. They made for better

hostages that way. His men gathered up those that could walk, and

prepared to march them towards the circle.

Fyodor spied Nabiki.

She had her head wrapped in a bandage. Her songbirds cooed

for her as she looked after the other wounded. The Professor and

Ferguson glared at the Ukrainian as he stepped up to them.

" Comrade Tarchenko, look what I have found! " he said happily.

In spite of everything, this was turning out to be his lucky day.

Tarchenko saw Nabiki and matched his grin.

" Don't kill this one right away, " he admonished Fyodor.

" She shall be our example to these people that we are quite

serious in our demands. "

The troops began to move them out and towards the circle.

Nabiki was in the lead, with Fyodor's rifle prodding her on. She

could feel the cold steel pressed between her shoulder blades.

Fyodor and Tarchenko exchanged jokes as they walked.

Nabiki didn't speak Russian. Despite this she knew that the two

who grinned evilly had nothing but bad things planned for her. Fatal

plans.

Now would be a good time for Tate-chan or one of the

others to show up.

Tatewaki Kuno stumbled across Hiro and the others and was nearly

shot for his troubles. D-Day lowered his revolver as Hiro, Durango,

and Minhiriath motioned for him to keep low. The occasional stray

bullet zipped by them to punctuate their argument.

"How do you fare, Ohata?" Kuno asked him.

"Been better," Hiro replied with a grimace. "What's going on in

the circle?"

"In truth I do not know, for I have wandered in pursuit of the

foe wherever he may cower," Kuno replied grimly. "I know only that

these accursed Russians have profaned this place with their foul

presence, and that I have seen the fair Nabiki Tendo to safety from

their clutches."

Hiro looked over Kuno's shoulder as the swordsman spoke.

"Oh boy..."

He couldn't believe this. Nabiki Tendo was being marched at

gun-point at the head of a column of Maiar prisoners. The huge dark

haired Ukrainian that had nearly killed Ranma and Akane on the Eiffel

Tower was the one holding the rifle. There was a glint in the

Ukrainian's eyes that told him Nabiki was going to die no matter what

happened.

Kuno turned around in time to see them march through the trees

only forty meters distant.

It took Hiro, Durango, D-Day, and Minhiriath to hold him down.

As Durango clamped his hand over Kuno's mouth, Hiro pinned one

arm and D-Day the other. Minhiriath tried his best to mask their

presence.

"Release me at once!" Kuno bellowed. No one could understand

him with Durango's hand over his mouth, but the intent was clear. They

held him down.

"Look, I know how you feel about her," Hiro soothed. "But you

go charging over there and they're going to kill her. There's no way

you can get to them in the time it'll take to squeeze the trigger."

Kuno raged once more. It was getting harder for the three men to

hold him.

"Ow! Watch the leg!" Hiro hissed as they struggled with the

swordsman. "Kuno, you've got to calm down." Hiro's voice was

pleading now. "If you care at all about Nabiki, you'll shut up and

stay still. They'll kill her without even blinking if you charge; we

gotta be sneaky about this."

Kuno's eyes gleamed coldly, but he stopped trying to struggle

with them. Durango wasn't sure what Hiro had said to Kuno, but

it appeared to calm him down. Warily, he took his hand away from

the swordsman's mouth.

"Tatewaki Kuno does not 'sneak'," he replied evenly.

"Fine. I'll do the sneaking," Hiro agreed quietly. "Just give me

a chance to get Nabiki out from under that rifle and then you can turn

them into hash any way you like."

Durango thumped Hiro on the head. " Excuse me, but just what

are you planning here? "

" I'm gonna work my way in front of them and get Nabiki out

of harm's way. Then Kuno and the rest of you will waste these guys. "

Durango looked down at Hiro's leg. " First of all, how do you

expect to get around them quietly with your leg broken? Second of

all, just how many of those guys are you planning on us taking out?

There's three of us and only two pistols between us. There's gotta

be a hundred of them, easy. "

Hiro looked down at his leg. " Don't worry about me. As for

those guys, it looks like they're using Nabiki, the Professor, and the

others as hostages. Probably in exchange for the Heart of the World,

'cause they're headed towards the circle and not out of the Crown.

That means we'll have Aerandir and his friends to help us when the

time comes. "

" Assuming they're still alive, " D-Day countered. " It's been

awful quiet since that cyclone hit, and no one's given the 'all clear'

yet. That's buggin' me right now. "

Minhiriath shook his head. "The Heart of the World has not been

completely contained yet. They're still fighting over it."

"We waste time," Kuno spat. His patience was almost gone.

Nabiki was in danger, and he was doing nothing about it. It was

unbearable.

"Right," Hiro agreed. "Minhiriath, can you keep me covered?"

The Maia nodded. "One is easier than several. There shouldn't

be any difficulties, but are you really up to doing this? Your leg is

set, the bone has even started to knit back together a bit, but

exerting yourself could easily break it again."

"I'll take that chance," Hiro replied grimly. He was still in pain,

but hopped along through the trees and brush. Minhiriath closed his

eyes in concentration, and Hiro faded from sight. Even the sound of

his passing faded away. Durango and D-Day blinked a few times,

then continued on with a barely contained Tatewaki Kuno in tow.

Nabiki could feel Fyodor poke her in the back with the rifle

every now and again whether she needed to pick up the pace or

not. It was infuriating, but given the circumstances there wasn't

much she could do about it. She just hoped Innael and her sisters

got the word to Aerandir.

When they reached the circle the battle was over save for the

struggle over the Heart of the World in the center of the circle. The

whirlpool of ki energy grew in size and in intensity, and the Maia

had backed away from it as it expanded. Ranma and Akane could

no longer be seen, nor could Sarophan.

The Maia were waiting for them as they entered the clearing.

Telepathic messages had been passing back and forth long before

Nabiki's songbirds reached the circle. Ryoga and Ukyo stood by

Urthel's side. Ukyo felt a shudder pass through her as she looked

upon Fyodor and Tarchenko. Her memories of her time in the

Ukraine were sketchy, but she was sure the two men had been

responsible for doing terrible things to her.

"Release your hostages at once!" Urthel called to Tarchenko.

" I shall when you surrender the Heart of the World to me! "

Tarchenko replied in a loud voice.

"It is not mine to give," Urthel told him. He gestured to the

whirlpool. "Perhaps you would like to join in the contest?"

Tarchenko consulted Toschev and Pulatski. The psychic and the

scientist were fairly certain that they didn't stand a chance trying to

pass through the whirlpool of ki energy that swirled with quickening

pace around the prism. They said as much to Tarchenko. He nodded

grimly and turned back to Urthel.

" I will shoot hostages until you give me what I demand! " he

yelled. " To prove that I am a man of my word, I shall shoot this

hostage right now! " He pointed to Nabiki, who felt a river of cold

sweat run down her temples as Fyodor pressed the muzzle into her

spine.

Ukyo cried out, begging him not to do it. Ryoga readied a ki blast,

likely the last one he had the endurance to throw after having thrown

so many this day.

Hiro knew he didn't have time to get any closer to them. He had

to act. Though he was invisible to the eyes of others, he could see

himself, and more importantly, could see the sights of his Sig P-220

pistol as he raised it in a kneeling stance.

There was a Russian at Fyodor's side, preventing an easy head

shot that would kill the Ukrainian instantly. He had to kill him

instantly, or else Fyodor would tense on the trigger and kill Nabiki

as he died.

A head shot was impossible, so he went for his final option.

Fyodor's finger was still on the trigger guard. There was time.

He held his breath and fired.

His bullet struck Fyodor in the hand, which spasmed and let go

of the rifle. Nabiki shrieked, thinking that she had been the one shot.

As Fyodor roared in pain she threw herself to the ground.

Kuno leaped out of the trees, katana engulfed in blue flames.

D-Day and Durango were close behind. Minhiriath willed the weak

minded among the Russians to drop their rifles. D-Day fired his .44

right at Fyodor's back, striking him square on. He stared slack-jawed

as the fabric of the fatigues came away to reveal the body armor

underneath. The Ukrainian ignored D-Day and spun on Hiro, who

had materialized only ten meters away and was now drawing his

second Sig.

" I will kill you! " Fyodor bellowed in rage, striding towards him.

Tarchenko saw that they had been trapped. More Maia came up

from behind their column. Within the ranks of the hostages, Maia

summoned up the last of their reserves to fight back.

" Kill all of the hostages! " he screamed.

Hiro stood up and leveled both Sigs at Fyodor. The Ukrainian

laughed mockingly as he drew a long knife and prepared to gut him.

His right hand twitched and bled as he cradled it close to him.

"I remember you," Fyodor said in Japanese. "You were the one

who shot me at the Eiffel Tower. It was a useless gesture then, as

now."

"Can't stop a guy from tryin'," Hiro replied.

He clenched his teeth in a feral grin and unloaded both Sigs into

Fyodor.

No one was more surprised than Fyodor when those thirteen rounds

passed straight through his chest to erupt out his backside. Blood

fountained forth from his wounds. His eyes glazed over and he gave

Hiro a look of confusion.

"Steel jacketed bullets, asshole. Hot loads. Armor piercers."

Hiro answered the look. "Unlike some people, I learn from my

mistakes."

Fyodor pitched over face first and died.

Tarchenko watched as Tatewaki Kuno hacked Doctor Pulatski

apart with a triple strike. Toschev fell next, his head neatly removed

from his shoulders. The swordsman's eyes blazed in rage as he bore

down on him.

"Cower behind the lives of others no more, craven!" Kuno

bellowed at him. "This day you face the wrath of the Blue Thunder.

The heavens shall be rent for what you have done to fair Ukyo,

beauteous Akane, and beloved Nabiki!"

He leaped into the air. Tarchenko raised his Tokarev and fired

wildly. A bolt of lighting ripped across the sky above them, bathing

the Crown of Eternity in blue light. The thunderclap rolled out to

engulf them.

Tarchenko was consumed by the fiery steel of Tatewaki Kuno.

Scraps of blue light flickered and died away. All of Kuno's rage

leaped out as the blade slashed and sliced the Russian to pieces. The

spectral flames of his hate-charged ki incinerated the scraps of flesh,

reducing them to sparkles of light and ash.

There was nothing left of Ivan Tarchenko.

The fight ended quickly after that. The surviving Russians dropped

their rifles and surrendered. Maiar rounded them up and took their

own back to the camp. Minhiriath, Nimatar and Urthel joined Hiro,

Kuno, Nabiki, Ukyo, Ryoga, and the Professor and his surviving

researchers to watch the whirlpool. Anazali and Aerandir were taken

away on litters. Both were too weak to move on their own.

"What's going on in there?" Nabiki asked. Kuno steadied her with

an arm around her waist. Ukyo had an arm around her as well. Her

songbirds perched on Kuno and Ukyo's shoulders and chirped

happily for her.

"It's the last battle," Nimatar intoned. "There is only one battle

left to be fought: a battle we cannot join, and the only one that

matters."

Within the circle Ranma and Akane were losing the battle. Sarophan

was too strong, even with the Maiar within the Heart of the World

flowing through Ranma. He could feel that last scrap being torn from

his grasp.

Akane was faring worse. She simply wasn't capable of handling

the kind of raw power that they struggled over, a power that flowed

through them, desperately seeking a purpose. Ranma could feel her

soul stretching past the breaking point, for that was how she was

hanging on to him. He was killing her.

"Let go of me Akane!" He shouted to her over the roar of the ki

whirlpool.

"I won't!" Akane cried. "I won't lose you!"

"You can't hang on any longer!"

"I will!"

"Both of you let go!" Sarophan yelled at them. "This is killing

you both!"

"Not on your life!" Ranma bellowed. "I ain't never lost a fight,

and this ain't the day it'll happen!"

"You will both die then!" Sarophan said without a trace of malice.

"I implore you to spare your life and the life of your fianc饮"

Ranma cursed. All three of them were too stubborn to give up.

"Akane, you have to let go of me!" Ranma yelled at her. His voice

became distorted as waves of gravity and electromagnetic force made

space-time tremble around them. The Heart of the World was trying

to recede, but the struggle held it fast.

"The Martial Arts Skating Contest," she protested, tears coming

to her eyes. "You never let go of me then!"

"I'll be fine! Just let go of me! I need you to do this!"

"I won't lose you, Ranma!" Her voice cracked as she screamed

in pain.

"Akane!"

"Save your fianc饡" Sarophan yelled at him. "She will die if you

persist in this!"

Do not surrender, the Maiar told him.

"Shut up!" Ranma screamed back at them. "This is all your fault!"

He looked to Akane, his eyes misting over as he saw how much

anguish she was in. He could feel her slipping away into nothingness

from within.

"Akane! Let go of me and smash the prism!" he yelled over the wind.

"You won't be able to hang on without me!"

"Do it!"

"Don't do it!" Sarophan interjected. "If you destroy the prism you

destroy us all! Everyone on this frozen island will die!"

"He's lying!" Ranma retorted. "Akane please! Trust me on this!

You think I want to die? I want to live, and I want to live a long time,

and I want to live that life with you! Now smash that goddamn prism!"

He felt her let go of him. He felt like a rubber band that had been

stretched to the breaking point and then released. For just a second

he felt his soul lifting free of his body, and he grounded himself with

thoughts of Akane and how much she meant to him. Sarophan clawed the

last scraps of the Heart of the World from him. He couldn't hold onto

them. The whirlpool began to collapse upon them.

"Akane!" he cried. His voice was distant and warped, as if it

were traveling through water. "Break it now!"

Akane stared at the gleaming white stone of the prism. It was

the most solid looking thing she had ever seen in her life. She

touched it, feeling how cold and hard it was.

"How?" she cried to him. "How do I break something like this?"

The pain twisted his face as he stared at her in disbelief. He only

had one chance at this. He took a deep breath to scream at her.

"Are you trying to tell me that some sexless uncute tomboy like

you can't even break that thing! Just how pathetic are you?! You're

supposed to be the heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes

Martial Arts!? HA!!" He raged at her, the venom in his voice carrying

through the distortion. "It's just a giant goddamn brick! You trying

to tell me you can't break one lousy brick?!"

His words struck just the right chord with her so close on the

heels of his encounter with Ukyo. The very thought of his arms around

Ukyo made her blood boil. His words continued to echo through her as

Ranma screamed at her incoherently.

Sexless uncute tomboy?! Pathetic?! Mocking my martial arts?!

Saying I can't even break a brick?! I love the jerk and this is how he

treats me?!

Akane exploded.

"RANMA YOU JERK!!!"

She lashed out with her fist and struck the prism dead on. The

shockwave flowed through the stone of the prism. The fragile

crystalline structure became flawed. What followed was academic.

The prism exploded straight up into the air. The blast threw Akane

to the ground as the Heart of the World was released from its prison.

Ranma and Sarophan began to burn with a furious golden light. Ranma

screamed in agony.

Sarophan hadn't thought it was possible for Akane to harm the

prism. When he felt it weaken and start to buckle from within he had

just enough warning to marshal the last of his strength. He wasn't

sure if it would be enough.

The Heart of the World was free, exploding out of its cage with

the fury of a thermonuclear bomb. It would have consumed the entire

island in the blast had Sarophan not caught hold of it with his will.

Ranma did as well, though he was merely the conduit for the souls

of the Maiar.

Sarophan knew then that Ranma shared his burden, had helped

cushion against the blast. Even if the boy hadn't been consciously

doing it, his body and his mind had still been the focal point for the

feat. Now they were locked in a different kind of tug of war. This

time they worked together to hold the Heart of the World in, to keep

it from laying waste to the earth.

Ranma felt the universe swell into being around him. He was privy

to secrets and places that no mortal man would ever know. Things far

far beyond his possible mortal comprehension. He felt the weblike tug

of gravity as it bound suns into galaxies, galaxies into clusters,

clusters into the very universe itself. He plunged into the fiery

hearts of suns and burst forth through great clouds of dust and gas

at the fringes of a dead neutron star. He could feel every particle

in his body begin to sing in harmony with that fading echo of creation

itself; a voice so low that it was merely radio waves hissing across

the tractless voids for all time.

The souls of the Maiar tried to shield him from this. He wasn't

seeing or experiencing but the smallest fraction of what was shown

him in that instant when the Heart of the World exploded into

freedom. His frail mortal body wasn't capable of it.

Sarophan saw this as well. Ranma was being consumed in the

very fires of creation. The Maiar, lacking physical bodies of their

own, could do little to ground these energies out of him. Akane lay

close by him on the grassy circle. He could see the red thread that

burned between their souls. Very few times in his twelve thousand

years had he ever seen such a thread burn so brightly between two

people. He understood now why Ianthe had failed.

He looked across the circle and saw them staring, faces frozen

in that instant of time. Nimatar, his oldest friend. The fallen form of

his nephew Palandir, whose soul he had felt leave this world only

minutes earlier. Aerandir, who hung on death's door but would not

pass. From his elevated perspective he looked into his heart and

knew that his nephew had born him no malice. Nabiki stood there

with his gift of the songbirds. By her side were the Blue Thunder,

and Ianthe. He could feel her contempt for him and it wounded him

worst of all. They had destroyed him by opposing his vision. They

had destroyed him.

Even so he could not destroy them for what they had done. He

looked back to Ranma, who was about to fly apart into the plasma

tornado that was the released Heart of the World. The thread burned

even as the young martial artist began to disintegrate.

Sarophan reached out and took the last scrap of the Heart of the

World from Ranma Saotome. It was so simple now. As he did so he

gathered up the Heart of the World one final time. He had no prism to

contain it, but he did have himself.

The whirlpool blowtorched up into a fiery tornado of plasma that

reached into space itself. Tendrils of starstuff lashed out at them as

they watched the Heart of the World explode into freedom. Nabiki and

Ukyo cried out. Hiro stood awestruck. Kuno and Ryoga could only

think of Ranma and Akane, who were right in the center of the tornado.

The Maiar understood what was happening, and knew that they would

live or die by the efforts of Sarophan.

Sarophan took great pride in claiming to be the most powerful of

all the beings on the earth. Now he proved to himself and the world

that it was true. He forced his will upon the Heart of the World,

collapsing it, containing it, forcing it back into the fiery depths of

the earth.

There was however a price to be paid for salvation.

He would be trapped within the Heart of the World. It was the

only way to ensure that the nexus of gravity, strong and weak nuclear

forces, electromagnetism and the very stuff that was life itself

returned to its place within the planet. He had to restore the

equilibrium himself; to let the Heart of the World seek its own path

would spread ruin upon the human race as it had so many thousands of

years ago.

As his final act of clemency he released the souls trapped within

the Heart of the World before he himself joined them. They leaped

free and he heard their laughter as they passed on into the next

realm. For a brief instant his sisters and other family were there

with him, and then they were gone.

His mind reached out to those that had opposed him. He bore

them no malice now, for in surrendering his physical body and

opening himself to the very forces of life and creation he saw the

universe for what it truly was: a beautiful perfect miracle that would

be perpetuated for all time and which he now considered himself a

fool for even daring to disturb.

He had done this for them. For Ranma and Akane, that their

thread might burn brighter and longer than any before them. For his

nephew Sil Amarn, that one day his dream of sailing the seas

between the stars would be realized. For Nabiki and her songbirds

that they bring joy to people's lives. For Ianthe, that she one day

might find happiness. For the Blue Thunder and his single minded

devotion to what he held dear. For Ryoga and his great strength

and nobility. For Hiro and Professor McFogg and all of his Maiar

brothers and sisters. And lastly for all of his youthful cousins in the

world, even if they had no idea what he had given them. He hoped

that Nimatar and Minhiriath were correct in saying that they were

finally learning responsibility for the world they lived in.

The last of the lights sparkled out above the shattered remains

of the prism.

Chapter Six

The last of the slain were burned upon the pyres the Maiar had

set. The mourning songs echoed across the chilling air of the Crown

of Eternity. Soon the Crown would be filled with ice and snow as

the last traces of the Heart of the World faded away.

There was much sorrow at the death and suffering, but it was

tempered with the joy of knowing that they had prevailed. Their

cousins had been given another chance to prove themselves, and

if the actions of Ranma, Akane, Ryoga, Kuno, Hiro, Nabiki and

Ukyo were any indication of what the human race was capable of,

the Maiar felt there was certainly hope. Hope soon gave way to

song, and the Crown was filled instead with their voices raised in

celebration for what they had won for themselves and their cousins.

Professor McFogg made his good-byes to them. Akane tried

not to cry as she hugged him, and even Ranma got a little choked

up when the burly scientist put his arms around him. The Professor

was mourning for Casimir and Katy Price and the others in his own

way, smoking his pipe and thinking of the past. They could see it in

his eyes how much he regretted coming to this place.

Ferguson was still in a kind of shock from Katy's death. No one

could comfort or console him. At last he retreated into his work,

helping Clay gather up the surviving equipment and instrumentation.

He vowed that he would complete the project, if for no other reason

than to try and give meaning to the deaths of Katy and Doctor Casimir.

They loaded up into the Catalina. Ranma and the others would be

returning to Japan on Aerandir's clippership. Durango fired up the

engines and waved to them from the cockpit. Bettie's Dare lurched

slowly into the air and headed north bound for Cape Town and a

refueling before pushing on to England. Akane watched them go

and waved good-bye. Ranma had the funny feeling that they hadn't

quite seen the last of Heironymous Durango and Daniel Day.

Other Maia were already leaving as they loaded into the skyskiff.

Nimatar gave them several large packages as gifts of appreciation,

and bade them not to open them until they were at sea. Aerandir

was still weak from his wounds, but insisted on taking the helm of

the skyskiff from Minhiriath. Anazali accompanied them as well, to

look after Aerandir despite his protests.

They passed the snow covered hulks of Russian helicopters as

the skyskiff darted over the ice shelf towards the sea. Far out of sight

lay the Russian fleet, still unaware of the fate of the troops they had

sent out. The Maiar would be sending them a message soon telling

them where they could find their dead, and those who remained as

prisoners.

Star of the West stood at anchor waiting for them. The ghost

crew were just barely visible phantoms now, though they were still

a lively bunch of salts. At a command from Aerandir the ship weighed

anchor and set course for Japan.

Ranma watched the ice shelf recede from sight from the afterdeck.

Akane stood by his side. She had their cloak wrapped around him.

"You okay?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he replied. "Maybe just a little shaken up though."

"I don't remember anything that happened after I punched the

prism. Do you?"

Ranma shrugged. "Not really. Just that it hurt big time. I think

Sarophan actually saved me at the end though. Weird, huh?"

Akane gave him a squeeze. "I'm sorry."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "For what?"

"For not listening to you sooner. I had to argue with you when I

should have trusted you."

He shrugged again. "It's no big deal. I know why you did what

you did. And as long as we're exchanging apologies, I'm sorry for

yelling at you. It was the only thing I could think of to get you mad

enough to break the prism."

She huffed at him.

"'Sexless uncute tomboy?'" She gave him a dark look. "We'll see

who's sleeping up on deck tonight for that one..."

"I said I was sorry!" He protested. He leaned over and nibbled at

her ear. "You are very sexy, and I think you're very cute..."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Forgetting something?' She

asked with mock sweetness.

"What, the tomboy part?" He asked. "You're still a tomboy."

Her fists clenched and she began to flush red.

"Raaaannmmmaaaaa..."

"Hey, I like tomboys!"

As promised, the dolphins were waiting for them in warmer waters.

In this case it happened to be at the equator. All of Aerandir's guests

were Pollywogs, and as such he and the ghost crew indoctrinated them

into the solemn mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep. The

appearance of King Neptune and his court came as quite a surprise.

After they were initiated and found worthy by his royal majesty

King Neptune to be pronounced Crusty Shellbacks, they were

allowed to wash off the various galley scraps and grime they had

crawled through and been pelted with in the sea. Ranma was of

course a girl by this point, which drove the ghost sailors wild to

see her transformation.

Ranma-chan floated in the warm deep blue waters of the Pacific

and watched as Ukyo and Nabiki dove over her head to splash

mightily behind her. The dolphins coached Akane as they supported

her with their bodies, but it was clear that she would need a lot of

practice before they trusted her on her own. Akane for her part didn't

mind, the dolphins made for good company with Aerandir translating.

They also seemed to adore her, even if she couldn't swim.

Tatewaki Kuno and Hiro watched the girls from the skyladders

above the gunwales. The water was calm, and Hiro found that his

seasickness hadn't returned with this trip. Nabiki and Ukyo waved

and tried to splash water up at them to get the two guys to join them.

After washing off their bodies in the sea they had both retreated to

the deck.

Ryoga joined them a moment later, wearing a pair of swim trunks.

Ranma-chan started to give him a queer look as he cast a hopeful

glance to the sea.

The water ain't that warm, Ranma-chan thought. He can't

be serious about this!

Ryoga pinched his nose and dove into the water before Ranma-chan

could yell for him to stop. Everyone looked at the roiling bubbles

where Ryoga went down. Except for Kuno and Akane, everyone tensed in

expectation of a little black pig to surface.

Ryoga Hibiki surfaced instead, and there were tears in his eyes

disguised as the drops of seawater from his bangs. Ranma-chan was

the most shocked of all, though she did her best to conceal it. Hiro

fell from the skyladder and into the sea in any event. Ryoga swam

lazily over to Nabiki and Ukyo, who beamed for him.

"Hey Ryoga, glad you decided to join us," Ranma-chan said

softly to him.

"I've waited a long time for this," Ryoga replied.

Ranma-chan sighed. Where had Ryoga found the time to get

his curse lifted? If only I hadn't been caught up in that spell with

Ucchan, I could be a guy right now...

Ryoga saw the look in Ranma-chan's eyes and patted her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Ranma."

Ranma-chan shrugged. "Not your fault Ryoga. Heck, I'm used

to this by now. Plus I've been giving this some thought."

Hiro paddled lazily over to them.

"Oh?" He asked.

"Yeah," Ranma-chan replied. She looked at Ryoga. "You know

that straight-arm I hit you with back in the ruins?"

Ryoga nodded sourly at the thought.

"I've been wondering about where you learned to do that move..."

"I've been practicing for a couple weeks now. It's like I can

sense places of power and I can draw upon that power for my moves,"

Ranma-chan began. "I talked to Aerandir and Minhiriath about it,

and they say I've probably always been able to do it, but that I didn't

know I was doing it. Every time I'm in a fight and it looks like I've

got nothing left to give -but I always manage to scrape up that extra

juice from somewhere? It's because I was getting the power from

my surroundings."

"Kinda like the hiryu shoten ha?" Ryoga said, scratching his head.

"Sort of, only I can just grab it out of the air and stuff around

me. It doesn't have to be people trying to get me. Anyways, I'm starting

to get a little idea about how all this stuff works. Maybe some day I

won't need something like the Heart of the World to remove my

curse. Maybe some day I'll master this stuff and just take it out

myself."

She shrugged again. "I mean Aerandir and Minhiriath both say

my curse is just a pattern of energy bound within me. Once I find

that pattern I can figure out a way to change it so it doesn't work,

or just get rid of it altogether. I'm not talking weeks or months here

though, they say it might take years."

"That's great, Saotome!" Hiro said happily. "I have no doubts

about you."

Even Ryoga nodded in agreement.

Ranma-chan grinned her girlish best for them. "So what are your

plans for when we get home?"

Ryoga blushed.

"I bet he's gonna go find the lovely Akari and raise a great big

family with her!" Hiro cackled.

"Shut up, you!" Ryoga bellowed, though he was blushing furiously

now.

"Is she gonna be okay with your cure?" Ranma-chan asked quietly.

"She'll understand," Ryoga replied, still blushing at the thought

of being within ten meters of Akari.

"What are you gentlemen whispering about?" Nabiki asked them

slyly.

"Guy stuff; none of your business!" Hiro replied with a grin.

Nabiki pointed to Ranma-chan. "It seems you need to see about

eyeglasses, Hiro-dear. Ranma doesn't appear to be a guy at the

moment."

Ranma-chan stuck her tongue out at Nabiki. She and Ukyo

answered in kind.

"Save the tongue for your fianc饬 dear," Nabiki riposted.

Ranma-chan decided that ignoring Nabiki was the best policy.

She turned back around and looked at Hiro.

"So how about you, Hiro? What are your plans?"

Hiro sighed. "Technically I still work for the Professor. I'm just

seeing you guys back to Japan. I'll fly back to London from there.

Don't worry though, I'm sure I can find an excuse to drop by and

bother you every now and again. We still have to get your things

from the Professor's place back to you."

"It's no bother at all," Akane told him. The dolphins brought her

over to them with chitters and clicks and the occasional playful

splash. "You are always welcome with us Hiro."

Hiro grinned. "Thanks Akane-chan! I'll remember that!"

Ranma-chan rolled her eyes.

Nabiki called to Kuno.

"Hey Kuno-baby, why don't you come on in and play with the

rest of the children?"

Kuno gave her a weary look. She blew him a kiss and he started

to flush a bit. As he was distracted, one of the more rowdy ghost

sailors bumped the swordsman off the skyladder and into the water.

His laugh filled apology was chorused by the others who were happy

to see the 'mate' sent into the drink.

Star of the West slipped into Tokyo harbor several days later.

Ranma wasn't sure how, but figured Hiro was responsible for the two

taxis that waited for them at the pier. Hiro of course denied

everything. Aerandir, Anazali, and Minhiriath stood at the brow to

see them off. Aerandir kissed each of them upon the brow, although

Ukyo and Nabiki didn't hesitate to throw their arms around him in hugs.

"You are all welcome aboard my ships; wherever I may be sailing,"

he told them. "I wish you fair winds and following seas."

Anazali had a few small gifts for them, each wrapped in shiny

pearlescent paper and told them that couldn't open them until the

next full moon. She kissed them all as well and whispered to Ranma

that she wanted an invitation to the wedding. To Akane she

whispered something else, which made the young woman cup her

hand to her mouth to suppress her smile and which made Ranma

blush for no reason he could think of.

Minhiriath waited until the others went ashore before wishing

Ryoga the best of luck.

"She'll be waiting for you lad," he told Ryoga. "Just you wait..."

He patted Ryoga's shoulder. "I'm still not sure why I had to take

you with me, but that may be a question better answered by yourself."

"Thank you Minhiriath," Ryoga said quietly. "I don't think I'll

ever be able to repay you for what you've done for me."

"Find that girl, Ryoga. Find her and never let her out of your

sight. Do that and I'll be very happy just thinking of you two

together. That will be repayment in full."

Ryoga bowed for him, not noticing that the Maia had slipped

something into his pocket as he turned for the brow.

As they assembled on the pier and got into the cabs, Nabiki's

songbirds suddenly took wing and flew away. She called to them by

name, but they didn't reply and they didn't return.

"What was that for?" She asked Ukyo sadly.

"I don't know," Ukyo replied. "I really wouldn't worry though,

they love you Nabiki. You can see it when they're around you. I

think they'll find you again no matter where you go."

The cabs took them to the dojo, each being prepaid by Hiro

Ohata. After an hour of negotiating traffic, the cab conveying Ranma,

Akane, Nabiki, and Hiro arrived outside the gate of the Tendo Dojo.

Genma and Nodoka Saotome, Soun and Kasumi Tendo, Doctor

Tofu and Akari were waiting for them.

Kasumi had three lovely songbirds perched on her shoulder.

They chirped excitedly as they saw Nabiki step out of the cab. She

called to them by name once again, and they alighted upon her

hand. They began to sing a bright aria for her, and Nabiki smiled

and scolded them softly for deserting her like that.

"Oh Nabiki!" Kasumi exclaimed. A tear of joy fell down her

pretty face. "They seem to know you!"

Nabiki grinned and hugged her older sister. "You could say that,

Kasumi-dear."

The Saotomes and Mister Tendo came up and hugged Ranma

and Akane.

"Welcome home, son," Soun and Genma said to Ranma in

unison.

"The both of you look very tan for spending your time in England,"

Nodoka remarked.

"It's a long story, mom," Ranma replied. "A reeeeal long story."

"You can tell me all about it the rest of the summer then," she

said with a wry grin. "And I want all of the details."

Akane giggled as Ranma blushed.

"All of the details?" Ranma asked sheepishly.

Nodoka looked up at her son sternly.

"All of the details, dear. I'm a married woman, so I don't

think I'll be too terribly shocked by anything you have to tell me."

"We'll see about that," Hiro cracked just out of elbow range.

Nodoka covered her lips with her hand politely to hide her

laughter. Ranma began to find previously unknown shades of red

and displayed them prominently on his face. Even Akane blushed

a little, though she was mostly laughing at Ranma.

The cab carrying Ukyo, Ryoga, and Tatewaki Kuno pulled up

alongside the gate. Ryoga's heart nearly stopped as he saw Akari

giving him a dreamy look. He stammered a greeting as she presented

herself before him.

"Did we get lost again?" She teased him gently.

He looked down at his feet and mumbled something in the

affirmative.

"Well it's a good thing I'm so patient, my dearest Ryoga," she

laughed gently again for him. "Although this story had better be good,

because I was so worried about you!"

"Y-Y-You were?" Ryoga stammered.

"Of course I was," Akari replied softly. "I know how lonely my

dearest Ryoga can be when he's lost."

They took the reunion inside, where a dinner large enough for all

of them awaited. Hiro hated to leave, but knew he couldn't stay more

than a day or two. He did have his obligations. It just felt so good to

be home. Even if it was the Tendo Dojo. From the first day he had

spent there it had seemed like a home to him. More than any place

in his native Osaka anyway.

Ranma patted his shoulder as he stepped through the door.

Aftermath

It was Christmas Eve, and as the snow fell outside, all was merry

and warm within the Tendo home. All of the family and friends were

gathered around the living room table as Akane and Kasumi brought

out mugs of cocoa from the kitchen. Ranma accepted his mug with a

nod, noting with pride how pretty the ring looked on Akane's finger.

She caught his sidelong glance at her engagement ring and chuckled

softly for him.

It had been a calm summer and a boring autumn. Akane had gone

back to school with Nabiki, though Ranma had not. There hadn't

been nearly the argument over the subject with Akane as he'd thought

there would be. She actually respected his decision to stay at the dojo

and take over full time from her father.

Ukyo sat with her boyfriend in the corner and watched the snowfall.

They weren't very serious yet, but who knew? Ukyo was going to

school as well, having sold the okonomiyaki shop to her cousin. She

gave him a good deal on it after having to put up with running the

place for a lot longer than planned.

If Fyodor hadn't been so good about cleaning and locking the place

up after kidnapping them, Eiji might have actually noticed that

something was wrong. As it stood he was doing pretty good with the

place. Ranma occasionally complained that Eiji wasn't as free with

the okonomiyaki as his lovely cousin had been, but Ukyo just patted

him on the head and gave him the 'poor baby' treatment. They had

become close friends once again, perhaps closer than they had been

before, and Ranma was very happy about that.

Tatewaki Kuno tried to look dignified as Nabiki lay in his lap and

sipped her cocoa. Her songbirds sang Christmas carols for them, and

had learned quite a repertoire of Japanese folk music in their short

time at the dojo. They adored Kasumi, who spoiled them rotten with

treats from the kitchen. Nabiki had never known birds for sweet-tooths,

but if any had them, they were hers.

Kuno was going to the same college as Nabiki, Ukyo, and Akane

on a kendo scholarship. As he was quick to point out, he was the rising

star in the world of collegiate kendo, and soon he would be going

professional in preparation for his own dojo. Nabiki had already

volunteered to handle the finances required for such an ambitious

project as Kuno had in mind.

As far as any relationship went between them, it was still a game

of inches. Kuno had matured considerably under Nabiki's tutelage. He

was still a pompous braggart, it was just that he was not a pompous

braggart when she was around. Which was often. Some might call that

change, but as far as Ranma was concerned the jury was still out. At

least Kuno had recognized his engagement to Akane, and with Nabiki

giving him tough love there wasn't much of a problem on the Pig-Tailed

Girl front either.

Ryoga and Akari were sitting out on the deck. They had a thick

blanket wrapped around them. Ranma was sure Ryoga had proposed

to her, but couldn't drag a confession out him no matter how hard they

beat on each other. Ryoga hadn't been around much, probably because

he was learning about Akari's family business...

He thought about his own proposal. It wouldn't be long before he

and Akane tied the knot. Memories of that glorious night in Monaco,

of him dancing with Akane, came back to him in a rush. He might have

thought he hated it before, but as he looked back to the summer he

knew those were the best days he had ever spent with her.

His parents and Mister Tendo had been ecstatic about his marriage

proposal to Akane. They had thus far been able to keep mention of

their intimate sleeping arrangements a secret from them, although

Ranma had the funny feeling that his mother knew that he and Akane

were making love and was just keeping mum about it for her own

reasons.

They had exercised a few precautions in that regard as well.

Neither of them was ready for a child just yet. Ranma wanted to get

he dojo recognized a little better first, hoping to draw on more

business that he could support that future family. He wanted

children -eventually, and Akane did too, but this was something

they had to plan ahead for.

He was still thinking about that family when Akane settled into

his lap. She caught the gleam in his eye and patted his cheek with

her hand. She knew there was some mistletoe hanging up around

here somewhere...

A knock came at the door. At first Kasumi thought it was the

Takedas and the Oshitas caroling. They were the two Christian

families in the neighborhood and very nice people. She opened the

door to find one man stamping his feet on the mat. He wore a black

greatcoat and a white scarf wrapped around his neck. An attach鍊case was loose in his hand.

"Merry Christmas!" Kasumi greeted cheerfully. "Won't you

come in?"

"Thanks Kasumi," the man replied.

Recognition set in at last.

"Oh my! Mister Ohata! Welcome! We've missed you."

Hiro smiled for her. "I've missed this place myself."

"Hiro!" Akane cried, leaping up from Ranma's lap to hug him.

Nabiki and Ukyo got their own hugs in as well. Hiro smiled again

as Kasumi handed him a mug. Ranma and Ryoga waved, Kuno

gave him a firm nod.

"What brings you here Hiro?" Ranma asked.

Hiro looked around and sighed sadly. "A little business I'm afraid."

"What is it?" Akane asked worriedly.

Hiro sat down on the floor next to the table and bid them do

the same.

"This is sort of my last job for the Professor."

"How's that?" Ranma asked.

Hiro looked away for a minute.

"Professor McFogg passed away last week. It was a stroke, he

went in his sleep."

Akane gasped in horror.

"It was painless and quick," Hiro assured her. "I saw him lying in

bed after the maid discovered him. He was smiling and his eyes were

closed. I know he didn't suffer, and well, he was getting on in years."

He looked away again, and Nabiki saw him wipe away a tear. "It

was just his time," he finished. He took a deep breath as Ukyo

squeezed his shoulder.

"Anyways, the Professor changed his will around after our little

adventure. You and Akane-chan are named in the will. He never had

any children, and a few distant relations will be getting most of the

inheritance, but he set aside a few things that you seemed to be

interested in, Akane-chan. Things like his old maps and paintings from

the study are yours. They'll be here within the week."

He opened the attach鮍

"There's also the matter of a trust fund that he had his lawyers

set up for you."

"Trust fund?" Nabiki piped up.

"Yeah. Most of the Professor's remaining wealth was in property.

Except for the mansion in Aldershot, it's all being sold to pay off

debts and inheritance taxes. Once the government and the lawyers get

their cut, the rest is supposed to be divvied up into a few trust

funds."

He read the documents from the attach鮍

"One of these is to go to the 'family' of Ranma Saotome, to

include his wife and children, payable in annual installments of five

percent upon the day of his wedding and from each year thereafter.

There's more, but it's all legalese."

Akane looked to Ranma, who shrugged for lack of anything better

to do or say.

"How many zeroes are we talking about, Hiro?" Nabiki asked.

Hiro thumbed through a few estimates from McFogg's lawyers.

"I'm told it'll probably come down to about 40,000 Pounds. That's

about eleven million yen."

Genma nearly fainted. His son almost joined him.

"No pressure on you guys to get married, huh?" Ukyo teased them.

Akane nudged Ranma.

"We should probably make an offering and say a prayer for him at

the shrine," she whispered.

Ranma nodded slowly and gave her a squeeze. She was close to

tears in his loose embrace. He felt a lump in his own throat as well.

While he had never been as close with the Professor as Akane, he

had really liked the old man.

"Hey now, no sniffles," Hiro scolded the two. "You know the

Professor wouldn't want that."

He took a drink from his mug. "I do have some better news to

report. Ferguson got his doctorate a couple months ago. He rammed

his thesis right down the board's throat. They were in there seven

hours and everybody who was everybody was showing up. Ferg

tore 'em apart. He didn't even have to come back a second time. He

and Mister Clay have a paper going together and the buzz on the

intellectual street is talking like they have a trip to Stockholm in

their future. Doctor Casimir's getting credit too, since he helped

get the model back on track. Just think, you guys might know a

couple Nobel laureates very soon."

He took another drink, Kasumi refilled his mug from the kettle.

"The Prince of Monaco came to the funeral. He wanted me to

convey his best wishes to Ranma, Akane, Nabiki, and Tatewaki

Kuno -he called him the 'Blue Thunder'. He also extends his

welcome to each of you to come back for next year's Grand Charity

Ball, and is quite happy to make the arrangements to get you to

Monaco in time."

"You two are planning on a June wedding, right?" Nabiki asked

Ranma and Akane. They nodded. "That would be some honeymoon,

know what I mean?"

Akane gave Ranma a dreamy look and he knew that the plans

might as well be set in stone now.

"He also promises to provide better security for you this time,

discreetly of course," Hiro finished with a grin.

Everyone face-faulted.

"Other than that, Merry Christmas all!"

The night went on as they talked and told stories and relived

their June adventures. The snow began falling a little harder now and

they all went outside to stand in the middle of it. Breaths steamed

from their lips as Kasumi led them in one of the few Christmas carols

everyone knew.

Hiro watched them all and smiled. He knew he couldn't stay for

long this time either, but for just a little while he felt like he

belonged. The world was a big place, and he still had to do a bit more

in it before he ever returned to Japan for good.

Ryoga and Akari looked quite content as they stood side by side.

Ukyo and her new boyfriend had a similar look. Even Nabiki and Kuno

had a little bit of a glow about them as they stood close. He spied

Kuno taking her hand in his and grinned as Nabiki smiled with

satisfaction to herself.

It was Ranma and Akane that warmed his heart the most. The

first time he had ever seen Akane was from a photo that Ranma used

to look at when they shared a listening post watch out in No-Man's

Land during the war. The look Ranma gave that photograph was the

same wistful loving look he gave her now. As they took each other's

hands he realized something new about them.

It was true that Ranma had proposed to her, had even given her

a ring (a little after the fact mind you.) It was true that the

wedding ceremony wouldn't be until next June. It was all just the

trappings though; just going through the motions. As Hiro watched

them he knew that in their own hearts and minds they were already

married.

The End of Chasing the Wind

Author's Notes:

1) Jeez... 44,000 words for Part 10. It's a good thing I like the

abuse. Chasing the Wind now tips the scales at about 219,000 words.

I do it all for you.

2) The two flashbacks Ryoga has of the war are quoted directly from

Ranma Goes to War and Once More Into the Breach (RGTW 2) in

case anyone is curious.

3) USS Wahoo was a famous submarine of World War II. She was

commanded by the legendary CDR Dudley "Mush" Morton. Wahoo

was lost on October 11, 1943 after transmitting the following series

of messages: "Wahoo gunning, Convoy running." and the fatal

"Destroyer gunning, Wahoo running." She was sunk in a depth charge

attack and all hands were lost.

USS Tang was an equally famous submarine commanded by CDR

Robert "Killer" O'Kane. Tang was lost on October 25, 1944. After

firing her last torpedo of the patrol while surfaced, a wave tipped the

fish over and it came back at them. The explosion threw the eight men

topside overboard, including "Killer" O'Kane. The rest of the crew

went down with the boat.

I mention this because of my particular link to both boats in the form

of a silver plated cribbage board that can be found in the Wardroom

of USS Kamehameha. This cribbage board was the very same one

used by "Mush" Morton and "Killer" O'Kane in those fleeting

moments when both sub captains were in port at the same time. They

played cribbage and discussed the very tactics that allowed the United

States Pacific Submarine Force to account for 80 percent of all tonnage

sunk in the Pacific during the war. The cribbage board was donated to

the ship by the widow of O'Kane when Kamehameha was commissioned in

1965. I cannot think about that cribbage board without thinking of

those two legends, and my ghost sailors are a tribute to those 3500

men who are still 'On Patrol' in the cold deep waters of the ocean.

4) "The Ghosts of Cape Horn," by Gordon Lightfoot,

Copyright 1977. Now did Aerandir get this song from Gordon

Lightfoot, or did Gordon Lightfoot get this song from Aerandir...?

5) Of course I couldn't cure Ranma's curse. But what did you think

of Ryoga?

6) Very warm thanks to the following beautiful souls:

Dizzy -The one who did this to me.

Deranged Gear -Who always had a beer and a bagel waiting.

Yoshio -Who told me to relax and do this right.

Bridget Engman -Who has given me love, chocolate, and dreams.

Jennifer Whitton -Who has never stopped grinning for me. g 

Sean Gaffney -Who gave me the hardest time and the most support.

Lucas Muzzatti -Who gave me Azusa, even if I didn't want her.

Krista Perry -Who gave me Hearts of Ice to obsess over.

Chris Rijk -Who ragged me constantly on picky little details.

Kris Overstreet -Who has a really cool beard in his smiley.

Suds-kun -Who has given me tea-kettles and rabbit jokes.

WebDragon -Who gave me an axe-murdering Kasumi and poems.

James 'Jaymz' Cullen -Who leads the FFML Metal Militia!

Grendel -Who still catches my mistakes even when no one else does.

Wayne Pillion - Who was gentle even when he gave me the prod.

White Wolf -Who puts up with these huuuuuuge installments of mine.

Salomon Farin -Who went the extra mile to get this on the raac.

7) I have no immediate plans to continue this story line. In fact

I shall probably pick up Snipes in Wonderland full time, even if

most of you don't want to read a Robotech fic. (As long as one

person writes to me asking about Snipes I know I have an audience,

so :p") Those of you on the RAAC who aren't on White Wolf's FFML,

stand by, 'cause Snipes is coming soon.

8) Oh yes, for those of you who are curious about the little gifts

that Aerandir, Anazali, and Minhiriath gave to Ranma and Company,

they shall be revealed in future stories as I choose to write them.

Free the Nukes!


End file.
